For the first time in its 50-plus year history, Playboy will feature a Muslim model wearing a hijab.
Noor Tagouri, an American journalist and “badass activist” who is also a devout Muslim, is one of several women featured in Playboy‘s upcoming “Renegades” issue, a spread designed to showcase both men and women “who risked it all — even their lives — to do what they love.”
https://twitter.com/NTagouri/status/778937297785884672
Tagouri is a 22-year old journalist for Newsy, a mostly video news network, who is working toward becoming the first Muslim-American anchor on a national news network. She’s trying to change the way Muslims are presented in the media and improve reporting on the Muslim faith.
“I know what it’s like to have the narrative of our community be skewed and exploited in the media,” she tells Playboy. “I was like, ‘Hey, I know what it’s like to be misrepresented in the media. I won’t do that to you. I want to tell your story because it’s important and deserves justice.'”
Playboy revamped its editorial policies this year and no longer features all-nude photos — and Tagouri will be completely covered from head to toe in her hijab, a motorcycle jacket, and skinny jeans — but her appearance in the magazine is already causing major controversy.
In Muslim publications, she’s been accused of abrogating her religion, engaging with a questionable platform to supporting to commodification of women. A few have even asked whether Tagouri is going about her crusade to make Muslim women more visible in the right way.
“Are the voices of women — and in particular Muslim women — buried so deep under the cries of those who claim to speak on our behalf that our only available response is involve ourselves with Playboy, a magazine that has solely existed for the past 63 years for men to gawp at the bodies of half-naked women?” asked one female Muslim blogger. “Is this really how we reclaim our narrative?”
For her part, Toguri isn’t worried about public opinion. “I don’t read or pay attention to any of it. It’s just negative energy and unhealthy.”
You know when something feels right in your heart/gut. And you follow it. And you don't know why you soon find out the reason. That's faith.
— Noor Tagouri (@NTagouri) September 28, 2016
