Rawdah Mohamed has paved the best way for the Muslim group after she turned the primary hijab-wearing trend editor on the newly launched Vogue Scandinavia.
Having grown up in an asylum camp as a refugee in Norway she was bullied for carrying the headband and confronted racism for her Somali origin.
“We got here to Norway and for 2 years we lived in an asylum camp, which was in a really small city. That was very exhausting as a result of the individuals there have been extraordinarily racist. They didn’t need any refugees there as a result of they thought we have been harmful and we have been there to take their jobs,” she instructed Arab Information.
“Once they educate you that there’s something flawed with you, that you’re the issue and that you need to change, I didn’t like that. I didn’t go away my house and are available all the best way right here for them to inform me that I nonetheless don’t have my freedom,
“So I continued carrying the hijab simply to make a press release.”
Talking about how her curiosity in trend piqued, the 27-year-old shared that she obtained impressed by her experiences within the refugee camp the place the ladies have been very expressive with their hijab.
“Within the refugee camp in Kenya, solely the teenage women would put on the hijab. I beloved copying what they have been carrying and the way they spoke and walked. They might put equipment on their hijab and it was very fashionable. I actually wished to seem like them, “she stated.
Nonetheless, a profession in modeling was not one thing she had ever deliberate as a mutual buddy put her in contact along with her supervisor whereas she pursued a level in behavioral evaluation and healthcare.
“I went to a trend present in Oslo on the finish of 2018 the place I met my supervisor. He instructed me about what they have been doing and I went to his workplace for a gathering and I stated I wasn’t positive if I wished to be a mannequin however I wished to work in trend,” Mohamed stated.
Whereas her profession ultimately took it did include a fair proportion of surprises because the trade was not aware of the best way hijab modeling labored.
“At first I used to be very shocked at individuals’s perspective in the direction of issues which might be totally different or that they don’t seem to be used to,” she stated.
“There have been conditions the place I are available they usually know I can’t present my hair or something so they may ask for a gathering earlier than that and attempt to persuade me to point out slightly little bit of hair. Or they’d ask how a lot hair I’m prepared to point out as a result of they’d like to see only a tiny bit. I discover that outrageous,
“As the primary technology of hijabi fashions, that’s our job. If we don’t do it appropriately, then the style trade could have the management to do what they need so that you’re going to see so-called hijabi fashions however their hijab is just not because the mannequin or the Muslim group sees it.
“So we do have the accountability to teach the style trade on how our communities work, what we see ourselves as and the way we interpret the hijab,” she added.