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" One afternoon, on my way to the campus - I was majoring in political science at Nairobi University - a photographer by the name of Peter Beard stopped me in the street and asked me if I'd ever been photographed. "

Iman

Beard

Name

Political

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" Multicultural markets are nuanced but not alien. "

" I'm always criticised by other Somalis and Muslims for what I'm doing as a model and married to a white man and all that. "

" Nobody has ever said to me that I was pretty, 'til I met Peter Beard. "

" I'll be truly happy when we're not counting the number of ethnically diverse models on a fashion runway or campaign, when having a representation of the entire human race is the norm and not an exception. "

" My given name was Zahra, which is the 'flower of the desert.' I don't look anything like the flower of the desert. My name was changed by my grandfather to Iman, which means 'have faith.' And it meant to have faith that a daughter would come. "

" There are some people who have helped to advance me and other girls, but the fashion industry is always behind popular culture. They think they understand the zeitgeist. They don't know anything about the zeitgeist. "

Iman

Think

Culture

" I beg you, don't use the verb, 'discover', I hate it. What does it mean, that I didn't exist before? "

" I vowed to myself when I got married that I would cook every night. I find it very therapeutic. "

" After the bones mended, my left eye was smaller than my right, and my eyebrow never grew back. But you know what? Big deal. I think I became beautiful after the accident. I became kinder, more aware. I gained respect for other people. "

" It's really not a good idea to forecast or double guess the fates; you will always be fooled. "

" I wasn't a major in political science for nothing, so I understood the politics of beauty and the politics of race when it comes to the fashion industry. "

" I've always said if what I'm going to create doesn't look good on everybody, I'm not going to do it. "

" The women I gravitate to are the ones who defy convention and reinvent themselves - hence, they reinvent the world around them. "

" People get numbed when they see picture after picture, year in and year out, of people starving. "

" That is something that my mother instilled in me at a very young age - to know my self-worth. And I have had times again and again in the fashion industry where all of that was tested and I rose to the occasion because I was told that I am worthy and I should be able to walk away from something that is not worthy of me. "

" People called me 'Iman the black model'. In my country, we're all black, so nobody called somebody else black. It was foreign to my ears. "

" I was born in Somalia, which is in East Africa. My parents started with nothing: poor, poor, poor. They eloped, which was unheard of in my country, when my father was 17 and my mother was 14. "

" I don't look like a white woman. I look Somali. "

Iman

White

Somali

" I can enjoy what I'm engaged in and be fully present rather than planning my answers to questions while someone else is speaking or thinking about my next appointment while my current engagement is still in in progress. "

" We all want what every girl wants: to look fabulous while we're out there ruling the world. "

" There is a lot of noise out there. I don't want to follow the trend - I want to create the trend. "

Iman

Out

Create

" On my 50th birthday in 2005, my discount-wielding AARP card came in the mail. I hurled it in the trash, put on something fabulous, and had a decadent meal. Just the thought of putting it in my wallet felt like a concession. "

" I am the face of a refugee. I was once a refugee. I was with my family in exile. "

" When everyone is telling you, 'You're so beautiful, there's nobody like you,' you begin to think it's true. But of course there is nobody like you. "

" I have no intention of ever writing beauty tips on how to make an African-American nose look slimmer or Asian eyes look bigger. That's degrading. Asian eyes are what's beautiful about you and what makes you different. "

" My ritual is cooking. I find it therapeutic. It comes naturally to me. I can read a recipe and won't have to look at it again. "

" I did not want to get involved with a rock star. No way. It is not a sane thing to do. "

" At the end of the day, my legacy will not be modelling but my cosmetics line. "

" I'm a very political person, and I think things through clearly, even when I was 18 years old. "

" I would go to cosmetics counters and buy two or three foundations and powders, and then go home and mix them before I came up with something suitable for my undertones. "

Iman

Home

Before