| Biography | Halima Aden is a Somali-American fashion model. She is noted for being the first hijabi supermodel yet and is also known for being the first woman to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant, where she was a semi-finalist. She was also the first model to wear a hijab and burkini in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2019.
In 2020, Aden announced that she had quit runway modelling as it compromised her religious beliefs, though since then she has indicated that she would do modelling work as long as she could set the conditions. Aden also says in an interview with Tommy Hilfiger that towards the end of her modelling career she felt she had lost control of her identity. The last two years, I trusted the team on set to do my hijab and thats when I ran into problems, she says, like jeans being placed on my head in place of a regular scarf. The way they styled it, I was so far removed from my own image. My hijab kept shrinking and got smaller and smaller with each shoot. Aden later announced that she had planned to become the first Somali woman to compete at Miss Universe. |