A perfume steeped in controversy.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Sufi Muslims are upset with Italian fashion mogul Robert Cavalli, over a new perfume line he’s behind that uses an important Sufi religious icon on its label.
The Roberto Cavalli Company’s “Just Cavalli” perfume line uses a stylized “H” symbol on the perfume’s label and related marketing materials. That symbol comes from Sufi Islam, and is meant to stand for “Allah,” the Muslim God, and represent Islamic and Sufi teachings of peace, harmony, and love.
On top of that, video advertisements for the perfume line feature the symbol side-by-side with a scantily clad model – who, as it turns out, is famous Aerosmith rocker Mick Jagger’s daughter, Georgia May Jagger – and other controversial, sexually arousing imagery that does not fall in line with Islamic and Sufi teachings.
Sufi Muslim sects around the US have protested against Robert Cavalli and his company, saying that the perfume and its ad campaign denigrate their sacred religious icon and that the “H” symbol should immediately be removed from all materials related to the line.
Such a symbol, they say, should not be used as a cheap commercialization ploy. But, according to Reuters, Cavalli and his firm have been using the symbol on various products since 2011 – it is only now, when it was associated with a 22 year-old girl dressed in a bra and panties, who has the symbol tattooed onto her skin, that Sufis took offense to it.
Sufism is a branch of Islam that is concerned with inner peace, and often calls upon readings of mystical phenomena and other such philosophy as part of its teachings. The religion has hundreds of millions of followers around the world, mostly in the Middle East.
Cavalli, meanwhile, is an icon in the worldwide fashion industry, and is no stranger to religious controversy. In the early 2000s, he drew the ire of the worldwide Hindu community for selling a bikini line that was adorned with Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Cavalli and his company subsequently apologized, and Harrods – the London department store selling the garments – pulled them from shelves.
On this matter, however, Cavalli’s people have said that they see no resemblance between their symbol and the Sufi one, and have given no indication that they will be changing things anytime soon, if ever.