A Muslim journalist has become the first woman to pose in a hijab in this month’s issue of Playboy magazine.
Twenty-two year-old Noor Tagouri appears in the magazine’s October 2016 issue, fully clothed and wearing the traditional Muslim head covering, as part of the publication’s Renegades series, an issue dedicated to rule-breakers in their respective industries.
“As a badass activist with a passion for demanding change and asking the right questions, accompanied by beauty-ad-campaign looks, Tagouri forces us to ask ourselves why we have such a hard time wrapping our minds around a young woman who consciously covers her head and won’t take no for an answer,” the feature accompanying Tagouri in the magazine reads.
Tagouri, who graduated from the University of Maryland and now works as an on-air reporter for video news network Newsy, told Playboy that she doesn’t pay attention to those who criticize her appearance.
“It’s just negative energy and unhealthy,” she told the magazine. “I make sure to keep a great circle of people around me who keep me grounded.”
The journalist also said that wearing a hijab while working often encourages sensitive sources to trust her.
“To be honest, I think being a hijabi Muslim woman, helped me gain that trust. I know what it’s like to have the narrative of our community be skewed and exploited in the media,” she told Playboy. “I was like, ‘Hey, I know what it’s like to be misrepresented in the media. I won’t do that to you. I want to tell your story because it’s important and deserves justice.'”
Tagouri’s photo spread comes a little less than a year after Playboy announced the most significant change in its 60-year history, that it would stop publishing nude photos in its magazines.
The spread also comes as the hijab has begun to penetrate some fashion circles. Earlier this month, 28-year-old Indonesian designer Anniesa Hasibuan debuted the first collection to feature all models wearing hijabs at New York Fashion Week.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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