In the News: Promoting Child Abuse in Advertising

HijabPublicity Stunt? Gap Ad With Hijab-Wearing Girl Stirs Twitter Controversy, Sputnik News, 2018-08-10.

Users seem to have divided opinions on the brand’s new back-to-school campaign. Some lambast the hijab as a tool of oppression, while others believe that the ad is playing the diversity card as part of a marketing plan.

Gap Kids has released a back-to-school commercial showing a bunch of teenagers wearing denim clothes; one of the models is wearing a hijab.

The advert has been widely praised online. […] Some users, however, have been apparently dissatisfied with the fashion retailer. In a handful of critical tweets, netizens have slammed the hijab as a choice imposed on young female Muslims.

In order to increase profits, this clothing company has become complicit with political Islam in its campaign to normalize the wearing of the veil, to make it commonplace. The hijab-wearing girl in the ad is very young, too young to be wearing a hijab, too young to make an informed choice about such a loaded symbol. Veiling young girls for any extended period of time is a form of child abuse.

Three petitions (in French) against Gap’s shameful ad campaign:

• Fillette voilée chez Gap Kids — Le voile n’est pas un jeu d’enfant ! (Young girl veiled in Gap Kids ad; The veil is not a child’s game!), Féministes laïques, change.org.
• Le hijab n’est pas un jeu d’enfant ! (The hijab is not a child’s game!), Anne-Marie Bilodeau, change.org.
• Halte à la maltraitance des fillettes ! Danger du voilement pour développement et santé. (Stop mistreating young girls! Veiling is dangerous for child development and health.), Michèle Vianès, change.org.