Detroit Student Represents Muslim America on National Geographic Cover
SOURCE: DETROIT PRESS
BY: JULIE HINDS
When Iman Saleh, 23, posed for a portrait in a Hamtramck alley last summer, she knew she was being photographed for a major national magazine story.
What she didn’t know is that she would become the face of Muslim-Americans for two overseas editions of National Geographic.
Saleh appeared on the May cover of the Arabic edition and the Bahasa (Indonesia) edition, two of National Geographic’s 36 local-language editions that are licensed to overseas publishers.
The Wayne State University journalism student found out about her cover status through social media.
“I was getting messages from friends and screenshots,” she recalls.
Photographer Wayne Lawrence’s photo of Saleh was one of many taken for an article titled “How Muslims, Often Misunderstood, Are Thriving in America.” You can read the story and see a gallery of portraits — including Saleh’s — at National Geographic’s website.
As part of the magazine’s “Diversity in America” series, writer Leila Fadel, a national correspondent for NPR, took an in-depth look at the challenges, hopes and joys of life for the estimated 3.45 million Muslims who are part of the American tapestry.
According to the article, almost half of Muslims in America were born here and nearly 50 percent are millennials like Saleh, who works part-time at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn and is interning with its communications department.
Saleh says she is happiest not about being on the overseas covers, but about seeing a project available here and abroad that presents Muslim-Americans in such a realistic and relevant way.
Growing up as a first-generation Muslim-American who visited Yemen often with her family, Saleh says, ”I was always put in this bracket … that when I’m there, I’m not completely Arab, and in America, I’m not completely American. I was always kind of in this separate gray area.”
She hopes that readers take away from the story that Muslim-Americans are “the everyday neighbor, friend, classmate, colleague professional … whatever it may be. The thing I really hope to see is not just tolerance, but acceptance.”
That goal hit home for Saleh a week before the photo shoot, when someone yelled at her on the street for wearing the American flag-themed hijab.
“I was told it was a desecration by a random stranger,” says Saleh, adding that she felt hurt and confused by the verbal attack. (Although the U.S. flag code says it shouldn’t be used as apparel, bedding or drapery, the American Legion states that unless the clothing item is made from an actual flag, “there is NO breach of flag etiquette whatsoever” and flag-themed clothing expresses patriotism and love of country.”)
Saleh hasn’t been able to talk directly to many of her relatives in Yemen because the country is embroiled in conflict and an ongoing humanitarian crisis. She reached a cousin on Facebook, who passed along congratulations.
“I know they’re all proud and they’re all happy to see me on the cover,” she says.
As she finishes her final year at Wayne State, Saleh says she is focusing on journalism with an eye toward pursuing screenwriting.
“The reason that I went into journalism was so that I could actually write (the kind of stories) that National Geographic wrote about,” she says. “I want to bring more diversity to the media, especially television and film.”
