Thread by @thetimes

With her ten Somali brothers and sisters, Rawdah Mohamed spent her childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp. Now she is editor of a new Vogue magazine. The 29-year-old tells @JuLlewellyn her extraordinary story.

thetimes.co.uk/article/rawdah…

As a child in a refugee camp, Rawdah Mohamed was allowed to buy one dress a year, for the festival of Eid.

“I was obsessed by that dress. I would go around the tents and show it off,” she says. “Fashion’s always helped me out of bad situations I’ve been in.”

Her family gained asylum in Norway when she was eight, where her passion for clothes continued.

But she knew her chances of working in the fashion industry were almost nil.

Certainly, until very recently, fashion has had a poor record for diversity.

“I’m a woman, I’m black, I’m wearing the hijab and my last name is Mohamed. So, a job in fashion? Forget it,” she says.

When the French government revealed it was considering banning the hijab for women under 18, Mohamed’s response was a selfie with “Hands off my hijab” written on her upheld palm. It went viral.

thetimes.co.uk/article/hijab-…

Many assumed it was this stance that brought Mohamed to the attention of Vogue Scandinavia, but she’d been in the job since October.

She was chosen for her styling talents - her imaginative use of vintage or high street items, crazy patterns, cool sunglasses and hijabs.

One of 11 siblings (two adopted), Mohamed and her family were forced to flee the Somali civil war. She spent her early years in a camp in Kenya, living in a one-room tent with an outside toilet and cooking over an open fire.

Granted asylum in Norway, the family was placed in an asylum camp in a town of only 2,000 people, many of whom resented refugees.

“There were posters in the local coffee shop saying refugees are not allowed and they drew me with, like, a monkey holding a banana.”

“In the refugee camp the thing that was scary was the men with guns, but you learnt how to manoeuvre around these dangerous people. But in Norway the people that were harming us were our neighbours, and it was much more scary because they were not in uniform.”

Feeling like a career in fashion was impossible, she decided to work in mental health.

But then Mohamed began posting her outfits on Instagram, and as her following grew, she was asked to collaborate with brands and was signed by a model agency.

Now editor of the magazine Vogue Scandinavia, she aims to showcase different aspects of the country’s style and bring them to the world.

✍️ @JuLlewellyn
📸 Ole Martin Halvorsen

To read the full interview, head to:

thetimes.co.uk/article/rawdah…