At Miss Muslimah USA, complexity of modesty is on full display
AT THE MISS MUSLIMAH USA PAGEANT FOR YOUNG WOMEN, COMPLEXITY OF MODESTY IS ON FULL DISPLAY
Last year, on a Thursday in June, long before live events and large gatherings bore the threat of contagion, the ballroom of the Ford Community and Performing Arts Centre in Dearborn, Michigan, was in full pageant form.
Pink minicupcakes filled the dessert table. A disco ball hung from the ceiling, spinning subtly as the DJ set the mood with music. Seats for guests were draped in shiny gold fabric.
Drinks, however, was Welch’s sparkling red grape juice. The talent portion of the evening was made up entirely of readings from the Quran. A magician performed what he jokingly called “halal magic.” The musical act performed Muslim hip-hop.
For a century, the beauty pageant has embedded itself in the cultural identity of America. Miss Muslimah USA offers a fresh take on the well-worn event format, one that lies at the intersection of American cultural identity and religious freedom at a time when both seem to be in flux.
On their own terms
The pageant has given Muslim women, particularly those who wear the hijab, the chance to participate in an American rite on their own terms, without having to compromise their faith. (Its motto: “promoting modesty and inner beauty.”) It was created by Maghrib Shahid, a 39-year-old Black Muslim mother and modest clothing designer from Columbus, Ohio.
As a hijabi, Shahid felt that she and other women like her bore the brunt of discrimination against Muslims, a diverse population estimated to number more than 3 million in the United States.
President Donald Trump — a former pageant-world figure himself — has inflamed Islamophobia in the nation through his rhetoric and by banning migration from several majority-Muslim countries.
“We’re visibly Muslim; it’s us who will be attacked first,” Shahid said. “I wanted to give Muslim women the opportunity to change misconceptions about themselves.”
Halima Yasin Abdullahi, 23, who was crowned in the first Miss Muslimah pageant in 2017, said that she still feels its impact.
“I’ve gained a really strong and consistent confidence in myself and learnt to appreciate my flaws,” she said. “This is me. This is how I was born.”
To enter Miss Muslimah USA, contestants must be practicing Muslims ages 17 to 30, a range established after the first pageant, which accepted contestants up to 40 years of age. There’s a $250 registration fee and a screening process. Once they are enrolled, they can prepare to compete in several categories: abayah (a loose, robelike dress), burkini (a swimsuit that covers the whole body), modest special-occasion dress (dresses that are too tight could lead to disqualification) and talent, which may be a spokenword poem or a Quran recitation.
Contestants must also answer this question: “If you were crowned Miss Muslimah USA, how would you use that title to change misconceptions about Muslim women in the world?”
The winner holds the Miss Muslimah USA title for a year, signs a contract to abide by certain codes of conduct, is managed by the organisation and walks in a show at an annual fashion convention hosted by Perfect for Her, a modest-wear brand. Shahid helps the winner navigate sponsorships and fashion bookings.
Real impact
The first pageant was advertised to include a $5,000 prize for the winner. Subsequent pageants have not offered monetary rewards, although Shahid’s hope is to offer scholarships in the future.
Running the pageant on a shoestring budget by herself, Shahid dipped into her savings to bring Halima Aden, a Somali American model, to Columbus for the first Miss Muslimah USA. Aden was the first contestant to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota pageant in 2016 and went on to become the first woman to wear a hijab and burkini in
Sports Illustrated, in 2019. “It’s not about becoming rich or wealthy. It’s about making a true difference, a real impact,” Shahid said. “I want people to really benefit from this. I want to change your life. I want to change your soul.”
Her passion for pageants began in childhood; she told herself that someday she would enter a competition. “As I got older, I realised, I don’t see anybody like me — who looks like me and the way I dress,” she said. “It became a distant dream.”
Now that she has Miss Muslimah,
she said, “I’m living my dream through these women.”
Backstage last July, the contestants strapped on heels, adjusted the gowns they had modified with sleeves and high necklines, and helped one another tuck in their scarves before being called onstage.
The contestants strutted down the catwalk in their gowns one by one. Karter Zaher, a former member of Deen Squad, a popular Muslim hip-hop group, sang the hit song “Cover Girl” (which includes lines such as “She represents peace and got her own voice, she’s not forced to wear it cos’ she made her own choice” and “She rocks the headscarf like the mother of Jesus”).
Wearing their gowns, the women moved on to recite their speeches, which touched on Islamophobia, feminism, selfcare and the desire to be seen as multidimensional people in American society.
“I am a Muslim feminist,” Zeytuna Mohammad, a 22-year-old nursing student from Des Moines, Iowa, said onstage. “Many people think that those two words are incompatible, but I am here to prove you wrong. I am not oppressed. I am not passive, and I am certainly not caged.”
Umuhani Abdullahi, 20 and representing Kentucky, said in her speech, “This is my home — America. This is the only home that I know right now. I passionately dream of seeing girls like me in fashion books, on billboards, in Coca-Cola advertisements and obviously in movies — hopefully Netflix.”
This year, nonhijabi Muslims will be allowed to enter and compete alongside hijab-wearing contestants. Two international contestants — from Kazakhstan and Britain — will also be competing.
Shahid thinks there’s still so much work to do to reach the pageant’s full potential. She pointed to the rise of the Miss USA pageant, which grew out of the Miss America pageant after winner Yolande Betbeze Fox refused to pose for publicity shots while wearing a swimsuit in 1950.
“It took time for them to build,” Shahid said. “If you support Miss Muslimah, in the next 10 years we’ll also have that great momentum.”
It’s not about becoming rich or wealthy. It’s about making a true difference, a real impact. I want people to really benefit from this. I want to change your life. I want to change your soul.”
Maghrib Shahid (above) | Founder, Miss Muslimah USA