Graduation Project

The Legal Burqa

A resistance piece, combining the silhouette of the illegal, with the material of the mandatory.

The biggest pandemic ever? Racism.

There are countless people infected with the virus of racism, many of them even appearing asymptomatic. In these times where the world is fighting against Covid-19, racism is also heavily under attack from all sides. This resistance piece, touches on the most serious form of racism. De jure racism, which means racism by law. I can hear you thinking. How can law be racist?

In the Netherlands, there is a law making islamic face covering clothing (like the burqa and the niqab) illegal. This law applies on public transport, in government buildings and health institutions.

Now, because of the pandemic, it’s also mandatory to wear face masks in public transport, for “protection” against Covid-19. The mandatory face masks are non medical masks, that let through 40-80% of the dangerous particles.

Ironically, those things are exactly the same. Not according to me, but according to the law. How can the exact same thing be banned and mandatory?

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

Weighing the burqa against the face mask metaphorically, I realized someone has been closing her eyes to injustice. Lady Justice herself.

To show how the law I mentioned before leads to injustice, I placed The Legal Burqa on Lady Justice. But not Lady Justice as we know it. It’s Lady Justice, with her attributes adapted to the reality.