Multilayered and Multicultural, Creative Views of the Muslim Head Scarf.

The hijab, or Muslim head scarf, is supposed to deflect attention. So what should we make of the model wearing a leopard-print version and an eye patch? She's the creation of Princess Hijab, an anonymous Parisian street artist, who adorns women in advertisements with impromptu black-marker ''veils'' and papers public spaces with her own hipsterish ''Hijab Ads.'' The princess is the Shepard Fairey of the French Muslim world or maybe the Naomi Klein. Is she a ''hijabist''? Or even a Muslim? We don't know. But you can see some of her work in ''The Seen and the Hidden: [Dis]covering the Veil,'' at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Midtown Manhattan. The exhibition, which includes artists from Europe and the Middle East as well as American artists of diverse backgrounds, reminds New Yorkers that debates about the veil are heating up in many communities overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]