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Rabat – A month after his model in burqa and a miniskirt stirred controversy in the Casablanca Boulevard Boulevard festival, director Hicham Lasri has finally unveiled the first video of his new trilogy, Girl Power Hypra Feminist and Women Celebration.
Published Sunday on Lasri’s YouTube channel, the new clip shows the burqa-skirt-clad woman walking confidently through the festival’s audience while throwing a glance at the camera from time to time.
The video begins with a remix of the traditional Islamic song “Talaa Al Badrou Alayna” playing in the background. Soon “Perfume,” a song by the Metal Moroccan band Lazywall, takes over, mimicking the contradictory look of the model.
Many onlookers stare at the nonconformist woman with a clear expression of confusion painted on their faces. Others simply laugh or even scowl at her appearance.
Lasri explained later in September that the video was meant to convey a “sociological experience” to the viewers, by observing the instinctual reactions of the festival-goers when they see the young woman pass by.
“For those who did not understand, this is part of my new project,” he wrote on Facebook. “After ‘Bissara Overdose,’ ‘No Vaseline’ fatwa and the rest, a new project [named] ‘Girl Power Hypra Feminist and Women Celebration.’ It is a response to these sordid stories of bus, rape and macho stupidity.” Lasri was referring to the sexual assault filmed on a bus in Casablanca, which shocked the Moroccan public at the time.
After revealing the purpose of mini-burqa wearer, the film director clarified that he did not intend to disrespect Islam. “Long live the Morocco of tomorrow, and if an idiot tells me that I am conveying a negative image of Islam, I will send Nikita, Leon, and Predator to deal with him.”
