Mariam
Rahma Mohamed is 17-year-old model, UW Madison mechanical engineer student who will be one of fifteen contestants for the title Miss Muslimah USA. The third annual pageant is held at Dearborn, Michigan’s Ford Community and Performing Arts Center.
Goals and ambition
The 17-year-old UW-Madison freshman is already an exceptional woman, and her ambitious goals are supported by other exceptional women, like Fartun Osman, her mother, and Maghrib Shahid, CEO of the Miss Muslimah pageant
Rahma Mohamed graduated high school early, and is on her way to do the same in college. After her graduation, she hopes to eventually become a pilot. But right now, all of her focus is on the Miss Muslimah USA pageant coming up in July.
She decided to participate in the pageant for young Muslim women because it “is the first of its kind” and will “bring positive change to the image of Muslim women in America and provide a platform that gives Muslim women the opportunity to change misconceptions about them”
She is one of the youngest to compete in the national competition this year but is already ranked in the top group based on results of a social media challenge.
“We are here to show that even with a hijab, there are no barriers with beauty, confidence, poise, grace and elegance,” she said.
Socially active
Rahma stated: “I get a lot of my values from my religion, how I should be helping others and giving charity or even advocating for others.” This shows in her involvement with the community and the causes she defends in her free time. After attacks on synagogues, mosques, and churches in the past decade, she decided to run a platform promoting gun control and raising awareness on Islamophobia.
“By having this as a platform for my competition, I get to have a nationwide impact advocating for something I believe which doesnt just impact muslims but every religion that is facing hate crimes.”
At the Miss Muslimah pageant, she will give a five-minute speech about how “Muslim women are phenomenal and very capable of doing anything they put their minds to, just like any other woman.” To prove her point, Rahma plans to start up a non-profit organization to educate women in Somalia and support them in starting businesses and careers.
It is not just a future dream, Rahma is already taking steps. “I took a semester off,” she says, and “went to Somalia . . . to survey their needs.” Rahma plans to open her non-profit in the summer of 2020.
Photo credits: Mouna Photography for Wisconsin Muslim Journal