Controversy Over an 8-M Poster in Lérida Featuring a Woman With an Islamic Veil

Controversy erupts on March 8's eve over the official Women's Day poster released by the Lleida city council. The poster appeals to diversity, featuring representations of various women's faces of all ages, races, and styles. However, the illustration also includes a woman covered with the Islamic veil.

It is not just any garment, but the chador, an Iranian-origin Islamic veil that covers the head and part of the face. It is an intermediate step between the hijab, which only covers the head, and the full Islamic veil, like the burka or niqab. Additionally, in Iran, where women are persecuted and even killed for not wearing it, it is conceived as religious resistance against Westernization.

This is why the inclusion of a woman with a chador in a poster supposedly meant to advocate feminism has caused outrage.

The first to react was Sílvia Orriols, mayor of Ripoll and leader of Aliança Catalana. She asks the Lleida city council "if it believes that the humiliation of women is less so if practiced by the Muslim community." She labels the poster a "shame."

Outrage over the Poster

Cristina Casol, the Junts deputy who reported harassment in her own parliamentary group, has also protested vigorously. She said that feminism "must reject any representation that imposes patriarchal norms on women under the pretext of their culture."

Casol accuses the Lleida city council of "promoting a false diversity" with the "excuse" of "respect for foreign cultures." In her same publication, they share an interesting reflection by writer Najat El Hachmi.

"You can pass the scarf through all the filters you want, make it as fashionable as you want. But that won't stop it from being what it has always been: the symbol of an entire system of discrimination and oppression that is the tip of the iceberg."

Najat El Hachmi has been the subject of a campaign by the left, accusing her of being racist and Islamophobic.

A user on X, Isabel, warns that "they have normalized the chador" and that "the next step is to cover the entire face." They also warn that March 8 "has been taken over by organizations that have usurped true feminism with symbols of oppression and woke ideology."

Not Just Lleida

The Lleida poster once again portrays the contradiction of a certain left toward feminism and cultural relativism. It is not an isolated case, however. The Lleida poster is joined by others from various localities where the Islamic veil is also represented.

The Altafulla poster for this year's March 8 includes not one, not two, not three, but up to four women with Islamic veils. In Sant Andreu de la Barça three, and in Cubelles and Premià de Mar one.

In 2024 the Ripoll city council censored a major festival poster featuring a girl covered with the Islamic veil. This also sparked much controversy, and Orriols was labeled "racist." The controversy is once again served.