The Muslim supermodel’s debut in the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2019” was announced Monday.
What We Know:
- Halima Aden is now the first model in “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit edition to wear a hijab and burkini.
- She has previously made history by being “the first contestant in Miss Minnesota USA to wear a hijab and burkini, ultimately reaching the pageant’s semi-finals” according to CNN.
- The shoot was done at Watamu Beach in Kenya, her birth country.
- Growing up at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Aden stated during the shoot “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.”
Aden is rising as a force to be reckoned within the modeling industry. You go girl!
