Playboy model walks naked through Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in New York City, sparks outrage
A Playboy model who is well known for her contentious photoshoots was the target of severe backlash after she walked the streets of a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in New York City naked.
Belgian model Marisa Papen drew angry reactions and was almost arrested after her latest project saw her pose in front of Jewish school buses and walk naked in front of a group of men wearing traditional Hasidic Jewish clothing in the ultra-conservative neighborhood in Brooklyn, according to the Daily Mail.
While Papen is no stranger to controversy, she admits this experience was harrowing, and that, at one point, one man "gurgled and spat right through an open window" at her as she sat in an Uber with her crew.
"They were freaking out and yelling," she said. "One of them was pointing at his phone, screaming that he had cops on the line and that they were a few cars behind us. As the sirens were getting louder, the Uber driver was freaking out."
Aware they were short on time, Papen and her crew decided to flee the scene on foot, with footage captured of the incident showing the model and her cameraman Dries Vanderaerden running away as someone in the background shouted, "Go! Stop them!"
As multiple residents gathered at the scene, a police officer eventually arrived and was told that Papen was running naked in the streets. The model insists the claims are a lie and that she was "pushed against the rails."
The officer decided to let Papen free, following which she explained the aim behind her latest stunt. She said that she choose that neighborhood in particular "because men are not allowed to talk to other women on the street."
"The lack of love and understanding for others, and the fact they close themselves off from the outside or 'secular' world, as they call it, shows how afraid they are," she said, adding that some residents "did not speak a word of English."
The photoshoot was arguably one of Papen's tamer ones, and in the past, the model has attracted widespread criticism for posing naked at what is considered sacred ground for the Jews.
In May 2018, she posed completely naked on a rooftop overlooking the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, which is an ancient limestone that is considered the holiest place where Jews pray. She said at the time that she did so to "push the boundaries of religion and politics even further."
And it's not just Jewish holy grounds that she's targeted either.
In October 2018, she flashed her genitals at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia mosque, and two months after that, she posed naked at the Vatican while carrying a large wooden cross and sat nude on bibles at St. Peter's Square.
That last stunt even saw her and her photographer jailed, though they did see freedom after just 10 hours.