Halima Aden Becomes first Model to Wear Hijab

Somali- American model Halima Aden became the first Muslim model to appear in Sports Illustrated magazine wearing a hijab and burkini.

SI magazine announced Monday that Halima Aden is the newest member of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit family, making history as the first Muslim model to wear a hijab and burkini in the magazine.

Aden described herself in a video shared on the magazine’s official account on Twitter as “burkini babe.

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Aden's Interview With SI

Here is what Aden said During her interview with SI

At the beginning of the video, she said, “wow, I am so like I cannot believe I'm here like this.” Aden added, “this is literary a dream come true, I cannot even tell you how this feels like.”

"Growing up in the states, I never really felt represented because I never could flip through a magazine and see a girl who was wearing hijab,” Aden noted.

The 21-year-old Muslim model turned to talk about her life in a camp saying: “ I was born in Kakuma which is a refugee camp here in Kenya that's where I spent the first seven years in my life in the cab I felt like I was a bright kid because I remember translating for my mom it's what I had a lot of friends.”

[caption id="attachment_48550" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Halima Aden[/caption]

Aden described the culture shock she felt upon her arrival in the United States. “We landed in St. Louis, like the most impoverished part,” she said, adding, “I remember stepping off and thinking, ‘This is a refugee camp, I want to go back home!’ We moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota, and life started looking up from there.”

During the interview, Aden talked about her high school when she became the first Muslim Somali student. “ In high school I was my town's first homecoming queen I think that was like my first glimpse of wow I put myself out there I made friends with my peers they liked to be enough to nominate me and I want to continue that in college so that's exactly what I did I became my college's first Muslim Somali student senator,” she said.

The model stated, “I keep thinking [back] to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp. 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.”