Author: Kanessha Rama Krishnan
Editor: Vijayabalan Krishnan
Source: Faizal Tahir’s Instagram
KUALA LUMPUR, 14 June - ‘Racist’ remarks made by the Head Designer of Zara Women, Vanessa Perilman towards Palestinian model Qaher Harhash has caught the attention of Malaysian singer-songwriter Faizal Tahir, as he expressed his discontent towards the racist comment made by the head designer to the model that has been circulating in social media.
‘Zara can rot’, the singer captioned his post as he condemned the words said by Vanessa through her texts to Qaher in their Instagram direct messages that have caused the rage of people from all over the world who are in support of Palestine.
‘The world must understand that Palestinians won’t be silenced anymore, we don’t tolerate hate, and demand to be respected and acknowledged as people with rights and dignity’ he added, including the hashtag #zaramustapologize , expressing a need for the company to show accountability for its employees’ actions.
It is said that the Head Designer of Zara needed to ‘speak up’ as the model had insinuated that Israel is a ‘‘horrible evil country that does terrible things to Palestinians’’. Vanessa continued to contact him via Instagram, questioning his existence as a queer model if he were to open up about his sexuality in ‘Muslim countries’ as he would be ‘stoned to death’. It was clear that the two had varying opinions on Israel and Palestine, Vanessa’s reply was met with huge backlash, resulting in an apology coming from the Head Designer.
She has also added generalising comments such as ‘Maybe if your people were educated then they wouldn’t blow up the hospitals and schools that Israel helped to pay for in Gaza’, adding to the fury of netizens worldwide.
Multiple queries were sent to Zara, questioning their actions to resolve the issue, to which the fashion brand responded that they have opened an investigation as soon as the issue was made known to their team and that the misunderstanding has been resolved. However, the ‘resolution’ to the issue did not solve things personally between the Head Designer and model as Qaher shares his dissatisfaction with the ‘power dynamics’ in play in their conversations and how this would severely impact his livelihood, The continuous exchange of messages between the two has caused the issue to snowball into the global space and netizens who are in support of Palestine have been condemning the remarks said by Vanessa Perilman towards the Palestinian model.
The massive criticism has brought forward a hashtag to boycott products from the fashion retailer, #BoycottZara which trended on Twitter as global netizens in support of Palestine have gathered on the digital platform to express their solidarity with the Palestinian model.
The issue has shone a light on the repercussions of words by leaders of industries regarding humanitarian issues and the rising need for accountability within companies for its people as the world is striving towards increasing political correctness as mankind continues to evolve.
