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Recently I found a very provocative picture circulating in anti-Islam communities. It shows a presumably Muslim man, who is wearing a very small bathing suit and is standing next to a fully clothed woman in black jilbab.

The question

The primary question is: Is the photo below a true holiday photo as one would initially think, or is it fake (staged, set up, edited, photoshopped, etc.)? I'm skeptical about it being real because there are a number of Islamic traditions and doctrines that make it highly unusual these two would be pictured like this.

If possible, I would also be interested in the following:

  • Who took the picture?
  • Where was this picture taken?
  • When was this picture taken?

Here's one example of it being used in anti-Islam circles, with 7.5K retweets and almost 33K likes at the moment of writing: https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1291340727490764801

2manyusernamestaken
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  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/111565/discussion-between-oddthinking-and-fattie). – Oddthinking Aug 08 '20 at 15:46
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    I don't know about this specific picture, but I was at the beach a few days ago and saw families dressed like this (in the Netherlands). It doesn't seem that strange. – Erik Aug 09 '20 at 18:00
  • Is this something skeptical about? A picture of of two human beings on beach?? – PAS Aug 10 '20 at 00:15
  • @PAS As a person with close to zero local muslims around me, I really have no clue what they might do or wear at the beach, so being skeptically minded, yes, I might easily believe this is completely fake. Or rather, for the sake of enlightenment, knowing really what a day at the beach looks like for a muslim family is an interesting thought, but that would probably be harder to work into a question that accords with site guidelines. –  Aug 10 '20 at 18:01

1 Answers1

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A Google image search suggests it comes from Villa Next Door: Graduation Show 2017; Royal Academy of Art, The Hague and is part of the portfolio created by an artist, Jaimy Gail.

Since it is described as a graduation show for an academy, it was presumably produced as part of a course at the academy.

Due to the attention the picture has been getting, the editor of the show has appended this message to the photograph.

FOR ALL THOSE WATCHING AT THE MOMENT: THIS IS NOT AN ANTI-ISLAM OR PRO-ISLAM IMAGE. THIS IS A STAGED WORK OF ART. WHICH MEANS THERE IS MORE IN IT THAN JUST PRO OR ANTI SOMETHING. AND ONLY AS SUCH IT HAS TO DO WITH REALITY.

PhillS
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