Halima Aden talks hijabs and high fashion
In an exclusive podcast, model Halima Aden discusses beauty pageants, headscarves and being a Muslim woman
A year ago, aged just 19 years old, Somali-American Halima Aden became the first hijab-wearing model to be signed to mega-agency IMG Models, joining a roster that included Gisele Bündchen, Miranda Kerr and the Hadid sisters.
A sign of a changing beauty standards and greater diversity in fashion? You better believe it. And Aden, who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya in 1997, has continued to be the beautiful, fearless face of change in the industry (while also helping to end some of the stigma about being a refugee by talking about her own experiences). After making her modeling debut at Kanye West’s Yeezy presentation during New York Fashion Week in February 2017, she then walked for Max Mara and Alberta Ferretti in Milan, and graced the covers of Carine Roitfeld’s CR Fashion Book and Vogue Arabia.
In an exclusive podcast, Aden pays tribute to another champion of Muslim identity and female solidarity, and reads Open Letter to Women of the World Considering Wearing Hijab in Interfaith Solidarity with Muslim Women by civil rights activist Zainab Chaudry. The letter, which offers a way in which women are able to support one another, prompts Halima to talk about her own experiences as a hijab-wearing model, prom queen and 2016 Miss Minnesota USA beauty pageant contestant, as well as her views on being a young Muslim woman in the Western world.
Listen to Halima Aden’s Incredible Women podcast here.
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