Playboy features its first Muslim woman in hijab

A 22-year-old Muslim journalist is the first woman to pose for Playboy wearing a hijab.

Noor Tagouri, a Libyan American journalist, will appear in the October issue of Hugh Hefner’s American adult magazine that has seen the likes of Kate Moss, Pamela Anderson and Madonna grace its cover.

Playboy – which only recently put an end to featuring nude models – has named Noor as one of their 2016 Renegades and people who are ‘rule breakers’ thanks to her dream of becoming one of the first hijab-wearing (headscarf or veil-wearing) anchor-women on national US television.

In addition, Noor is already a face amongst her peers with 147 thousand Instagram followers and many projects under her belt campaigning for people to embrace their identities.

The hashtag #LetNoorShine trended when the journalist posted an image of herself sat in US channel ABC’s studio and she tagged the picture ‘The first hijab wearing news anchor on American television’.

Referring to her campaigns, Playboy wrote about Noor: ‘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.’

Noor and the magazine have received backlash from inside the Muslim community from people who believe the article mocks modesty, but the journalists ignores her naysayers, telling Playboy: ‘It’s just negative energy and unhealthy. I make sure to keep a great circle of people around me who keep me grounded.’

And many have supported her Playboy shoot on Twitter.

She also believes that being a hijab-wearing reporter benefits her.

During a TED talk she once held, Noor told the audience: ‘Being a hijabi Muslim woman helps me gain trust. I say, ‘I know what it’s like to be misrepresented in the media. I won’t do that to you. I know what it’s like to have the narrative of our community be skewed and exploited. I know first-hand that once people are re-empowered, they realise their own story is powerful and they begin to share. It’s incredibly rewarding and can even help enlighten or save others.’