A Muslim journalist has posed for Playboy wearing a hijab as she makes a powerful statement about modesty.
Stunning Noor Tagouri, 22, appears in the October issue as part of the 2016 Renegade series, which celebrates people who break the rules.
It is the first time the publication that normally favors nudes has ever featured a Muslim American
Tagouri, a first-generation Libyan American from West Virginia, says she dreams of being the first hijab-wearing anchor on US commercial television.
She garnered attention in 2012, when she posted a photo of herself at an ABC 7 News desk, with the caption: ‘The first hijab wearing news anchor on American television.’
The post went viral and became a campaign with the hashtag #LetNoorShine, which encouraged others to embrace their identities and pursue their dreams.
Tagouri, now works at Newsy, a video news network.
Writing alongside the photos of her Playboy said: ‘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,’
In the shoot for Playboy Tagouri wears black pants, white T Shirt, Converse sneakers and a black leather jackets.
Tagouri has received backlash for her appearance in Playboy .
Blogger Nishaat Ismail said: ‘Do we really need to go down the route of associating with an institution based on the objectification of women in the name of challenging perceptions and celebrating female empowerment?’
‘Is this really how we reclaim our own narrative?’
Some critics took jabs at her online with the hashtag #hoejabi.
But Tagouri told Playboy she didn’t pay attention to the negative comments.
‘It’s just negative energy and unhealthy. I make sure to keep a great circle of people around me who keep me grounded,’ she said.
‘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.’
Others meanwhile celebrated Tagouri’s decision to pose in Playboy.
‘Far too often, Muslim women are being told how to dress and behave by groups who are neither women nor Muslim,’ editor Aymann Ismail wrote.
‘For Muslim women who choose the hijab, the outward presentation of their faith makes them vulnerable to both sides of an increasingly polarizing and politicized conversation about the rights of women.
‘That is why when someone like Noor Tagouri speaks out and treads new ground as an individual, she deserves the full support of the entire Muslim community.’