Georgia May Jagger, daughter of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, has outraged a group of fanatic Muslims after making an appearance in a saucy perfume ad for Just Cavalli. The 22-year-old British model flaunted a tattoo that she called the “sign of seduction” but Sufis claim is a sacred as well as trademarked symbol from their religion.
The ad shows Jagger stripping to her lingerie and flaunting her tattoo while seducing a shirtless man. The promo infuriated Sufi Muslims across the world and some of them even protested at Cavalli stores in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Dusseldorf and London.
Followers of the Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism, which has approximately 500,000 adherents worldwide, say the logo, a stylized H lying on its side, is based on an Arabic symbol that spells Allah and depicts harmony and peace. Campaigner Nasim Bahadorani said it was disrespectful and offensive of the Italian design house to have used a symbol that means so much to believers for cheap entertainment and profit sake.
Roberto Cavalli however has been using the logo since 2011 and they say the symbols are neither similar in likeness or mistakable. In May, the trademark and design authority of the European Union rejected an official request by Sufi Muslims to have the Just Cavalli logo invalidated.
“Roberto Cavalli SpA is deeply saddened by the distress expressed by the Sufist School students, but hopes that the sentence emitted by a competent authority such as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market will convince the Sufist religion of the complete good faith and the groundlessness of their requests,” the company said in a statement.
Undeterred by the Union’s decision, Sufis have stepped up their campaign with the help of YouTube videos, a Facebook page as well as a Twitter drive at #TakeOffJustLogo apart from the demonstrations outside stores that sell Cavalli fashion products.
This is reminiscent of Cavalli infuriating religious radicals 10 years ago when they decided to feature Hindu deities on their bikini line displayed at the Harrods department store in London. After large-scale protests, Cavalli said the swimwear was not intended to offend anyone but Harrods stopped selling the products nevertheless
