Vogue Arabia magazine has made history by featuring three black models on their April cover. The models were all in their hijabis. The models are Halima Aden, Ikram Abdi Omar, and Amina Adan.
Model Halima Aden, 21, was raised in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp and she made headlines in 2017 when she was the first hijabi model to feature on the cover of America’s Allure magazine. This is the second time she will be on the cover of Vogue Arabia.
Halima spoke about the experience of being a Muslim model to the magazine saying, “I think it’s important to remember that wearing a hijab is a woman’s personal choice. It doesn’t make her any better or worse than another Muslim woman. To me, it symbolizes modesty and gives me a sense of power.”
Ikram Omar who made her London Fashion Week debut back in 2018 talked about the issue of wearing a hijabi in the fashion world saying, “In the past, I would have had to bring extra headscarves with me just in case, but stylists mostly bring some for me now. They find it fascinating and get creative, which warms my heart because they see the beauty of the hijab every time a new look is created.”
Barely three years ago, there wasn’t a single hijabi on the international runways but the scene is finally changing. Modest fashion has become more than religious observance, spreading its wings around the globe to become a billion-dollar industry. Stereotypes are slowly being eradicated, but there’s still a long way to go. The magazine features exclusive interviews with US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and tech entrepreneur Amani Al-Khatahtbeh who expose the realities faced by Muslim women living in the US today
As Olympic medallist, Ibtihaj Muhammad says, “It’s important to have Muslim women be shown in a different light something we haven’t seen before.”
The high fashion world is becoming more accepting of different versions of beauty. It’s great seeing such young models break stereotypes.
