Somali-American teen first to wear hijab and burkini in Miss Minnesota USA pageant
Beauty pageants usually involve a swimsuit competition, but this year the Miss Minnesota USA also involved a burkini.
Halima Aden, 19, was the first fully covered Muslim to compete in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant on Saturday. She wore her hijab along with her gown, and a burkini during the swimsuit part of the competition.
“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.”
Minnesota has one of the highest concentrations of Somali-Americans in the country and recently elected its first Somali-American state legislator when Ilhan Omar won her Minneapolis district.
Aden said some Somalis in the community worried that competing in a beauty contest would jeopardize her modesty, but she said she wouldn’t compromise her ideals to compete. She stayed covered during the competition, including wearing the full-length beach outfit known as the burkini. Although such garments caused international controversy earlier this year when the French government banned them on some beaches, pageant organizers approved Aden wearing the modest garb for the swimwear competition.
Aden is a freshman at St. Cloud State University and enjoys studying history. She was born in Kenya and moved to Minnesota when she was young, growing up in St. Cloud.
Out of the 45 contestants, Aden was one of 15 to make the semi-finals. Although she didn’t win the competition, her participation as a fully covered Muslim made history.
“A lot of people will look at you and will fail to see your beauty because you’re covered up and they’re not used to it, so growing up I just had to work on my people skills and give people a chance to really know me besides the clothing,” Aden told KARE11. “Be who you are. It’s easy to feel like you have to blend in, but it takes courage to live your life with conviction and embrace the person that you are.”
This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Somali-American teen first to wear hijab and burkini in Miss Minnesota USA pageant."