19-year-old Somali-American Halima Aden advanced to the semifinals during last weekend’s Miss Minnesota USA pageant, becoming the first contestant to compete in a hijab and burkini—proving that beauty pageants are making some progress towards diversifying.
Aden proudly wore her hijab throughout the entire pageant, which included rounds devoted to wearing eveningwear and bathing suits. As the pageant’s announcer said, she was “making history” as the first woman to wear the traditional religious garment during the competition.
“Not seeing women that look like you in media in general and especially in beauty competitions sends the message that you’re not beautiful or you have to change the way you look to be considered beautiful, and that’s not true,” the teen told the Huffington Post earlier this month.
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Aden’s choice to wear what she feels comfortable in and defy conventional beauty standards comes at a time when other young women are standing for some of the exact same values. Earlier this year, 15 year-old Rayouf Alhumedhi from Saudi Arabia submitted a proposal to request that a hijab emoji be added to phone keyboards. “Roughly 550 million Muslim women on this earth pride themselves on wearing the hijab. With this enormous number of people, not a single space on the keyboard is reserved for them,” she wrote in the proposal. The emoji was approved by the Unicode Consortium.
Out of the 45 women competing in the beauty pageant, Aden made it to the semifinal round, which consisted of 15 competitors. Unfortunately, she didn’t move on to the next round, but her choice to wear her hijab during the entire competition will likely have a lasting impact and inspire people around the world. Her decision is particularly relevant considering France’s burkini ban this summer. After all, no one should have the right to control anyone else’s choice of clothing, unless it’s considered hurtful towards someone else.
Muslim girls share why they choose to wear, or not wear, the hijab every day:
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