Damn, Vogue just can’t keep itself out of trouble, hey?

Not long after the controversy about Gigi Hadid posing for them in blackface, people are now raging over a Vogue Arabia cover shoot featuring a Saudi princess behind the wheel of a red convertible.

Posing for their June edition, Princess Hayfa bint Abdullah al-Saud is feeling her elegant self while in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. The shot was taken in the desert outside the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

Observe:

For us, that wouldn’t be unusual, but Saudi women have it bad, folks.

The Guardian has some more info:

The issue is dedicated to the “trailblazing women of Saudi Arabia” and lauds the reforms launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to loosen social restrictions in the conservative kingdom and curb the powers of religious hardliners.

One of these reforms is lifting the driving ban on women, which will come into effect on June 24. Princess Hafya apparently supports these changes:

In our country, there are some conservatives who fear change. For many, it’s all they have known.

Personally, I support these changes with great enthusiasm.

But people are not enthusiastic about her cover pic.

Following a string of arrests of at least 11 activists in May – most of whom have been identified by rights groups as “veteran women campaigners for the right to drive and to end Saudi’s male guardianship system” – campaigners reckon the Vogue cover featuring the Saudi princess is in bad taste.

Like, in really bad taste, considering the human rights record of Saudi Arabia isn’t exactly spotless.

Social media users have taken to Photoshopping the images of the detained activists over the princess’s face:

Yes. Yes to all of this.

The Guardian states that at least four of these activists – who, as Twitter user Nora Abdulkarim points below, are branded as “traitors” in their own country – were released last week, but the fate of the others remains unclear.

Until it’s made clear what happened to them, social media aren’t going to quit sounding off on their outrage regarding the tone-deaf cover:

Louder for the crown prince in the back.

And for Princess Hafya, too, before she rides off into the sunset.

[source:guardian]