Worlds first hijab-wearing supermodel Halima Aden says that she sacrificed her own career in the hope that it would encourage others to speak up for themselves.
Talkng to designer Tommy Hilfiger in a new interview for BBC 100 Women, Halima said that speaking out has given strength to many.
“I hope that aspirant models will know that Halima has taken one for the team.”
Halima Aden, who broke the traditional line of mannequins with her hijab looks, started her career at the age of nineteen. Aden had incorporated two, non-negotiable conditions into her modeling contract: Hijab and no male stylists.
However her ramp-walk career turned out to be short-spanned when she decided to quit at age of 23. Aden announced to step back from fashion industry in November 2020. She said she had to quit because she could no longer align her career path with her faith.
Aden told Hilfiger that during last two years of her career, she had lost control of her identity.
“Like jeans being placed on my head in place of a regular scarf. The way they styled it, I came to a place where I was so far removed from my own image and my hijab kept shrinking,” said Halima.
Aden who belongs to African-Muslim community, was born in a Kenyan refugee camp in 1997. Her mother had fled Somalia to Kenya in 1994 during the civil war and later settled in Minnesota in the United States.
In 2019, Aden made history by becoming the first model to wear a burkini, designed by Tommy Hilfiger, in a Sports Illustrated magazine. But during the progressive years, her ethnicity combined with her religion made the job way more challenging than she expected. In Aden’ words, she felt like a “minority within a minority.”
Halima says that by leaving the industry she hopes she has inspired younger models.
“If I’ve done anything I’ve given models the opportunity to speak up. I felt great pressure being the first hijab-wearing Muslim model in the industry and I felt a sense of responsibility to the girls coming after me.”
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