The veiled model, Halima Aden, announced her return to the world of fashion in a press conference a few days ago in Istanbul, after a retirement that lasted about 10 months, which she had announced last November when she confirmed that the field of international fashion exploits people, and strips them of their humanity.

Halima Aden is known worldwide as the world's first hijab-wearing model, topped the cover of the American magazine Allure, and was the first woman to wear the hijab in the Miss Minnesota contest in the USA, and the first hijab-wearing model for major fashion weeks shows.

During the conference, Halima announced her collaboration with emerging Turkish hijabi fashion label Modanisa, to become its brand ambassador, designing two new collections and being part of the modest fashion marketing effort.

Speaking at the conference, Aden said, "We want women to strive to achieve their goals without compromising their beliefs."

According to Middle East Eye, Halima Aden's announcement of her return to the world of fashion on her own terms coincides with the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the "Modanisa" online stores, where Samim Sorel, Vice President of Marketing and Brand Manager of Modanisa, said - The partnership with Aden was a perfect fit, and he would like to see Istanbul become the modest fashion capital of the world.

During the conference, Sorrell added, "Halima's creative energy and positive connection with young Muslim women of all backgrounds will be a wonderful asset to us as we move forward with our global plans."

Modanisa is the first online portal for veiled clothes in Turkey and the world, attracting 16 million visitors every month since 2011.

Halima is proud of her roots

Halima Aden - 24 years old - is always proud of her Somali origins, and is not shy about talking about her upbringing in refugee camps. "I am Halima from Kakuma," she says, referring to the refugee camp in Kenya, where she was born, and then moved to the US state of Minnesota at the age of seven. .

Halima was called the queen when she was in high school, and she was the first veiled woman to win this title, which is an honorary title won by the most famous female student in the school, and she is honored by visiting her at home, but Halima was not happy about winning as much as she feared her conservative mother who only cares about education and obtaining grades. Distinguished study.

Halima decided last November to give up her dream as an international model (Reuters)

After years of astonishing success in the fashion world, Halima decided to give up her dream as an international model, in exchange for adhering to the teachings of her religion, she said, as she saw in the world of fashion a conflict with the Islamic religion.

Halima says she used to spend 10 hours getting ready to put on clothes she wouldn't be able to keep.

From retirement to return

As a hijabi model, Halima has been selective about her clothes.

Early in her career, she would take a bag full of hijabs, long dresses and skirts to every photoshoot.

Whatever her outfit, keeping her hijab on for every shoot was a non-negotiable thing.

And it was so important to her that in 2017, when she signed with IMG - one of the world's largest modeling agencies - she added a clause to her contract, causing IMG to agree that she would never have to remove Her veil, it "means the world to her."

Despite her strong adherence to the hijab at the beginning of her career, and imposing it on major modeling agencies as a prerequisite, not negotiable, Halima says that after years she was forced to abandon the conditions of the hijab until it became smaller and smaller, and lost control over the quality of the clothes she wore, and even accepted head coverings that were excluding her. At first.

"I eventually got carried away and got into the awkward gray area of ​​letting the team (fashion agencies) control my hijab," Halima added.

Despite her strong adherence to the hijab, Halima was forced after years to give up its conditions (Reuters)

In the last year of her career, her hijab became accentuated by her neck and chest.

Sometimes, instead of a headscarf, she would wrap jeans - or other clothing and fabrics - around her head.

So Halima wrote immediately after the decision to retire, "I wish I had never stopped wearing my black veil, and let's just say I drifted a lot; I was at the time so desperate, that I lost touch with myself."

But it seems that Halima has found her goal in designing her own fashion line, which includes her own conditions, and does not expose her to men staring at her, as she previously stated at the time of her retirement, as she recently confirmed that women have the right to dream and achieve their goals without giving up their veil.