A 19-year-old Somali-American woman became the first contestant in history to wear a hijab during the Miss Minnesota beauty pageant
- Halima Aden, 19, competed in the Miss Minnesota pageant on Sunday
- The Somali-American teen made the top 15, before being cut
- Aden says she entered the competition to bust misconceptions about Muslim women
- The St Cloud State University freshman was born in a Kenyan refugee camp and moved to the U.S. when she was seven years old
- The Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to the largest contingent of Somalian ex-patriots in the country
A 19-year-old Somali-American woman became the first contestant in history to wear a hijab during the Miss Minnesota beauty pageant
Halima Aden of St. Cloud competed in the scholarship competition on Sunday, making it to the top 15 out of a field of 44 other women. However, she was cut before the finals.
Like the other young women in the competition, Aden modeled a series of outfits. But she stuck to her conservative Muslim dress code, covering her head with a hijab and wearing a burkini during the swimsuit competition. A burkini is a swimsuit worn by many Muslim women, which covers most of the body.
Aden was born in a Kenyan refugee camp and moved to the U.S. with her mother Rukia when she was seven years old. She is now a freshman at St. Cloud University and hopes to be a U.S. ambassador one day.
She said she entered the competition to bust misconceptions about Muslim women, such as the notion that they are oppressed because they wear the hijiab.
‘I just want to go on as myself,’ Aden told the Star Tribune. ‘When you have a lot of women in our state that do wear the hijab, we should be able to see that everywhere.’
Aden’s mother and a contingent of family members cheered her on Sunday night. The Star Tribune reported that Aden’s mother originally did not plan to attend the pageant, but changed her mind after relatives explained the scholarship prize.
‘I support my daughter,’ Rukia Aden said. ‘This was something new to me. I’m very happy to live in the United States where people are free and can wear what they want.’
‘It was her choice and I’m happy with what she chose,’ she added.
It was also reported that Aden spoke to Somali community members before competing, to calm fears she might compromise her religious principles by competing.
In the end, the competition appeared to be a success, despite Aden not coming away with the trophy.
‘A lot of girls were very supportive of what I’m doing, and that just makes it all worth it and my advice to them is just be confident in your own skin, know that an extra layer of clothing does not define your beauty, because beauty is within,’ Aden told WLS.
https://youtu.be/OWxzXDwo0VU
Denise Wallace, the director of the Miss Minnesota USA and Miss Minnesota Teen USA, was also supportive of Aden.
‘The organization continues to evolve as women evolve. The Miss Universe organization is proud to be the forefront of the diversity of beauty,’ Wallace said
Meredith Gould, 22, of Minneapolis won the competition on Sunday. She will compete in the televised Miss USA pageant next year. President-elect Donald Trump, who has proposed a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration to the U.S., used to own the beauty competition before it was sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation last year.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to the largest contingent of Somalian ex-patriots in the country, according to the most recent U.S. Census. The majority of Somali-Americans came to the U.S. in the 1990s, when civil war broke out in the east African nation.
