Saudi Arabian jewellery designer Princess Nourah Al Faisal has claimed she has experienced “overt discrimination” from a French newspaper just recently.
Al Faisal, founder and designer of Nuun Jewellery, detailed an incident with France-based paper Les Echos where she was set to be featured in an article about jewellery designers, but she alleges the newspaper requested to have an image featuring no hijab.
“Nuun was approached by Les Echos and asked to submit images of some of my work for an article on jewellers,” Al Faisal wrote on Instagram sharing a screenshot of photos options she had sent through. “They also requested an image of me, which we supplied.”
However, what followed was a response from a co-ordinating agency who said that “the images shared didn’t conform to the images of other designers and that unless we were prepared to share an image without a hijab they would not be using Nuun jewels in their article”.
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While she clearly stated that the behaviour does not represent the French culture, the jewellery designer, whose flagship store is located in Paris, admitted she found the treatment “shocking”.
However, she expressed her pride in her culture, adding that it is essential to “expose” discrimination when it is seen.
“As a Muslim woman I am proud of my religion and my culture, I have always tried to represent my culture to the best of my ability,” she said. “Discrimination is insidious and ingrained in many institutions all over the world and we must expose it wherever we find it.”
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