A Muslim Journalist Is The First Woman To Pose For ‘Playboy’ Wearing A Hijab

For the first time in the publication’s 63-year history, Playboy will feature a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. The favorite magazine of every teenage boy, circa 1992, went through a radical “rebranding” in February — is now nudity-free, so people will actually believe you when you say you read Playboy for the articles (please stop burying them in the woods, okay?). The latest issue is dedicated to “Renegades,” the men and women who “change how you think about business, music, porn, comedy, gaming, and more.” One such Renegade is Noor Tagouri, a first-generation Libyan American from West Virginia.

Tagouri is an on-air reporter for Newsy, and the “badass activist” wants to become the first “first hijabi anchor on commercial U.S. television,” according to Playboy. “To be honest, I think being a hijabi Muslim woman helped me gain trust,” she said. “I know what it’s like to have the narrative of our community be skewed and exploited in the media.” Tagouri also discussed the unfortunate backlash she receives, or in her words, the “hate and criticism.”

I don’t read or pay attention to any of it. It’s just negative energy and unhealthy. I make sure to keep a great circle of people around me who keep me grounded. Whether it’s at work or at home, the people who have my best interest at heart voice their concerns and their critiques, and I work on them. Besides that, I just do the best I can to not worry about people who get upset because they don’t like something that I wear or say. (Via Playboy)

Tagouri — whose TED Talk on self-identity is a must-watch — is being praised online for making history. “As Muslims, we have a responsibility to protect each other, sometimes even from one another,” Aymann Ismail wrote for Slate. “Criticizing Playboy magazine’s role in controlling women’s lives seems very hypocritical when debating a Muslim woman’s right to share her story with a journalist working with that publication. Sadly, it’s just another example of a Muslim woman being told how to live her life. We need more representatives like Noor, and I, for one, support her.” So does Twitter.

(Via Playboy)

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