Rapper French Montana slammed for 'sexualising hijab' in latest album cover

An image used as an album cover by Moroccan American rapper French Montana has caused a stir on social media platforms this week for sexualising Muslim women. 

In the album cover, the 34-year-old is seen seated in the middle of a group of women dressed in Niqab and knee-high red boots.

The image for the album, which comes out in November, was released by Montana in a tweet on Monday.

"You don't have to change who you are. You can bring people into your own world," Montana tweeted.

The image has been slammed as "Islamophobic" and portraying Muslim women in a negative way.

"It capitalises on damaging portrays of Muslim women as faceless show pieces," Khaled Beydoun said on Instagram.

"The women are objectified and serve the function of providing a provocative backdrop instead of being presented as real, autonomous human beings. 

"I get that art should be provocative, but this provokes some of the worst Western stereotypes about Islam and Muslim women. […] French should know better."

Others questioned the rapper's intentions.

"With all respect to you sir, what is your intention here? To help us spread knowledge about niqabis or mock niqabis? If your intention is good, I would like to let you know this is not the way it supposed to be. And I hope you enlighten your heart about it," a Twitter user said.

Montana, whose real name is Karim Kharbouch, was born and raised in Morocco. He immigrated to the US with his family when he was 13.

On Wednesday, he was named the first ambassador of I Stand With Immigrants, a campaign initiative that highlights empowering immigration stories and the ways immigrants have positively contributed to the country.

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