#IAmMuslim: powerful social campaign aims a blow at Islamaphobia

Every week seems to bring with it new incidences of Islamaphobia.
Spurred by a growing migrant crisis and the recent terror attacks in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, intolerance directed at the Muslim community is higher than ever.

In response to this, Native VML and People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) have teamed up for a social media campaign that aims to address this situation by confronting people’s prejudices.

It does so by posting photos of Muslim women wearing a traditional Islamic hijab, fashioned after the flag of their home country.

“Juxtaposing these two symbols creates such a strong impact and challenges the assumptions people have about Muslim identity,” says Tendai Bhiza at PASSOP.

The portraits were made of various Muslim women, and will be used in an outdoor, print and social media campaign.

“We are fully aware that certain quarters may find these images controversial, but the point of this movement is to challenge the prejudices people may have, and change the way we think about a culture that has been unjustly defined by the actions of a select few,” said Ryan McManus, Executive Creative Director at NATIVE VML.

According to the digital agency, the hope is that this campaign will inspire people in other countries to create similar images that will spread the message and help shift the conversation.

“In this era of divisive rhetoric and rampant hate speech online, we need unifying images like these now more than ever,” McManus added.