09 July 2018|25 Shawaal 1439|Gulf News
As a child, Halima Aden loved to eat mud. This is the first line that started the cover story of Teen Vogue.
Teen Vogue features Halima Aden the first Muslim model wearing a hijab in its July digital cover.
The Headline “I am America” showcase Halima returns to Kenya for the first time, after 13 years when she migrated to the US.
For those who don’t know Halima’s story, the 1992 Somali Civil war caused her family to be displaced from Kenya relocating to the US in 2004, she was only 7 years old.
Now, she is 20 years old and became a successful model, she is UNICEF ambassador, previous Miss Minnesota beauty pageant contestant and she is always wearing Hijab, it’s her requirement.
Halima’s story gives some lights in the dark times of Donald Trump’s immigration policy in the US.
Halima states in this digital edition: “This country has given me so much in terms of life lessons and hardship and amazing opportunities. You take the good with the bad. It’s just given me so much. Growing up, I never saw magazine articles painting Muslim women in a positive light.”
As part of the cover package, Teen Vogue joined Halima as she traveled with UNICEF USA back to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where she grew up for an exclusive Teen Vogue documentary short, Halima’s Homecoming.
Filmmaker Mikey Kay followed Halima’s journey, capturing her impressions as she returned to Kakuma for the first time to meet with young people and give a historic first-ever TEDx Talk in a refugee camp.
