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Model wearing hijab makes Milan Fashion Week debut

12:30 PM Feb 23, 2017 | Team Udayavani |

New York: Hijab-wearing model Halima Aden made her Milan debut during Alberta Ferretti’s show which also saw fashion sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid on the runway. 

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Clad in a navy-and-black striped belted coat with flared pants styled underneath, the 19-year-old Somali-American walked the runway like a pro, reported New York Post.

Aden recently signed with the IMG agency and walked the runway at Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 5 show during New York Fashion Week earlier this month. 

Ferretti’s fashion show comes a day after the model made her fashion magazine cover debut for CR Fashion Book. 

In the magazine, she is interviewed by David Bowie’s widow Iman, a fellow Somali fashion icon, and discusses the importance of wearing her hijab on the cover. 

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“I always tell (people), ‘Just look around you, there are Muslim women who wear it and Muslim women who don’t’,” she said. 

“We have to break the stereotype. I think often the West does not understand the history and the privilege of wearing a hijab. They always think of oppression.” 

The model is focused on her fashion career, but she also has plans to become a UN Goodwill Ambassador. 

“I just think that there’s so much work to be done. I remember when I lived in a refugee camp, it was the people who weren’t Somali, the people who came from Western countries, who helped the most. I remember being six and thinking, ‘I want to be one of those women because I knew how much they helped us’.” 

And she understands the pressure that comes with representing Muslims. 

“I wish I could tell (people), ‘Hey, I’m not a perfect Muslim’. A lot of people had a misconception that I would be the perfect poster child for Islam,” she said. 

“So I got a lot of Instagram comments like, ‘Oh, you don’t have your neck covered, you’re not a Muslim!’ My thing is, ‘Stop judging women, especially if you’re a man, because you don’t know the responsibility that comes with wearing a hijab’.

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