Wildly successful international model Halima Aden will become the first woman ever to appear in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit issue in a hijab and burkini.
This appearance is far from her first groundbreaking move. As a teenager, she became the first woman to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant. Then, she parlayed her semifinal appearance in that competition to a successful international modeling career.
“I keep thinking [back] to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,” Halima told SI during her shoot in her home country of Kenya.
“So to grow up to live the American dream [and] to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya–I don’t think that’s a story that anybody could make up.”
Aden, a Somali American, was born in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya before moving to the U.S. as a child. She now dominates the fashion runways in New York and London. She has been featured in Vogue multiple times and has used her success to advocate for Muslim women around the world.
SI Swimsuit Assistant Managing Editor MJ Day said Aden was "an inspirational human for what she has decided to use her platform for and her work with UNICEF as an ambassador."
"She is, in my opinion, one of the great beauties of our time, not only outside but inside. We both believe the ideal of beauty is so vast and subjective. We both know that women are so often perceived to be one way or one thing based on how they look or what they wear. Whether you feel your most beautiful and confident in a burkini or a bikini, YOU ARE WORTHY," Day added.
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"Don’t change yourself…Change the GAME!! Ladies anything is possible!!! Being in Sports Illustrated is so much bigger than me," Aden wrote in Instagram to announce the move.
"It’s sending a message to my community and the world that women of all different backgrounds, looks, upbringings… can stand together and be celebrated. Thank you so much @si_swimsuit & the entire team for giving me this incredible opportunity."
“I never really felt represented because I never could flip through a magazine and see a girl who was wearing a hijab.” #ShatteringPerceptions
pic.twitter.com/EtNfpszcmy— Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) April 29, 2019
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition will be released on May 8. In an interview with People, Day said they sourced some of the burkinis from a company named Modanisa. They also had some custom-made burkinis from Cynthia Rowley, No Ka’Oi and Cover Swim.
Burkinis are still somewhat controversial in some places. A number of small beach towns in France went as far as to ban them in 2016. Furthermore, women in fifteen French cities have been fined and even arrested for wearing burkinis.
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