What is a Muslim woman to do when it comes to fashion? If she lives in Germany, she might consider Liaison Dangereuse, a German online lingerie store. She won’t find any burqas or chadors there, but there is a wide selection right out of Victoria’s Secret, or shall I say “Leila’s Secret.” Their latest ad (on their website and also, of course, on Youtube) advocates “Sexiness ist überall.” The ad is pure, old-fashioned commercial sex, with no cheap shots at Islamic icons, unless you think the black-blanket burqa fashion is described in the Quran. So is showing a little flesh and then piping in some Arabic music, ending with recognizably “Islamic” dress a bad thing? Does it really matter what a Muslim woman wears under her burqa, if no one can see it anyway? At least let her enjoy her underwear, if not the lucky husband.

It could be argued that finally a Muslim woman is presented who is both hot and assertive, a far cry from the usual victimization, including the aesthetic of Ayaah Hirsi Ali in Submission. Why not look for an alternative role model coming out of this ad? After all, Islam has been classified as a sex-positive religion, unlike the pathetic asceticism of Christianity. I have just been looking over a 15th century sex manual by the great Islamic scholar al-Suyuti. Yes, a sex manual that begins with all the prophetic traditions that this scholar could find about sex, and there are quite a few. Among these it is noted that the angel Gabriel will give believers the sexual power of 40 men in Paradise. If the 72 virgins are to be taken literally, and not as sour grapes, then multiply 40 times 72 and see what you get. You get the medieval musings of chauvinist Muslim men who legitimized sex with concubines and were convinced that certain herbs rubbed on their organs could have a magical effect (at least for the men). Al-Suyuti gives a lengthy glossary of sex terms that shows the subject was more than academic at the time. Before we deny Muslim women the right to choose their own undergarments and enjoy how sexy they look in a mirror without a burqa, let’s highlight the sexism that grants Muslim males a sex-charged afterlife.

So is this ad Islamophobic? On the blog Muslimah Media Watch, the bottom line is that “The obsession with the veil (and with what’s under it) has a long history, and one that is intricately connected to colonization, racism, and sexism. This advertisement does nothing to disrupt that history, leaving us with a character who is still being objectified, as a Muslim and as a woman, even when this is under the guise of female empowerment.” OK, I agree that the male gaze (and it is hardly unique to Westerners) rarely follows the Prophet Muhammad’s directive to men and women to be modest, but who is this ad targeting? Probably not colonialists, at least not the old-style kind. Men, including a lot of healthy Muslim ones, will no doubt enjoy the flirtation in the ad, but I suspect the real audience will be women who buy their own panties (and I think that is a majority). So is there a problem if German women, mostly not Muslim, respond to the ad and at the same time see a Muslim woman in a different light? At the risk of engendering some gendered feedback, I suggest that this is a rather good ad. I think it humanizes, if only to allow Muslim women to be treated like Western women in advertising.

Daniel Martin Varisco