A female model sparked fury by posing naked in front of Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall a year after she was jailed for a nude photoshoot in an Egyptian temple. Now, her email has been bombarded with death threats.
Marisa Papen received the death threats against her and even her family after taking naked photos from the roof-top of a building in the ancient Middle Eastern city.
Explaining why she took the naked shot, the Belgian model said:
It was immediately clear to me that if we could manage to take a picture in front of or near the Wailing Wall, the whole trip would be a success.
We got into a conversation with a super friendly guy, who turned out to be Muslim, and he invited us into his house where we drank coffee and mint tea.
When Papen and her photographer Mathias Lambrecht asked if they could visit his rooftop to take a photograph, the man gladly obliged.
The Western Wall or Wailing Wall is an ancient limestone wall in the old city which was part of a Jewish temple expansion and a holy site where Jews go to pray. It is seen as sacred holy site for Jews, Muslims and Christians. So, when he photos hit the internet, people were outraged and threatened to kill her and her family. But she isn’t bothered by this and said she is prepared to die for her art.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun Online Marisa said:
My family and I have received death threats over the shoot.
My mailbox and Facebook page have been full of threats after this. I’ve learned how to deal with this kind of thing since being arrested in Egypt.
I’m not afraid, that’s what I told the photographer: ‘I’m ready to die for my art’.
Obviously I’m trying not to but for me it is my life and my goal to spread my message of freedom.
So if one day some crazy guy wants to kill me for what I’ve done then so be it.
My friends and my family especially were asking me ‘what have you done? They’re going to come and kill you!’
They are all really scared someone is going to attack me over this.
Her racy photoshoot comes after she was arrested for posing naked in the temple complex of Karnak near the Egyptian city of Luxor.
Credit: Marisa Papen, The Sun, LIB, Mathias Lambrecht