Gigi Hadid’s Latest Vogue Cover Has Sparked Some Controversy

Dana EisenbergMar 2nd, 2017, 3:18 pm
 

Gigi Hadid graced the first-ever cover of Vogue Arabia this week. When the cover came out, Hadid posted it to her Instagram account and wrote about how proud she is to be on it:

I think the beautiful thing about there being international Vogue’s is that, as a fashion community, we are able to celebrate, and share with the world, different cultures. Being half-Palestinian, it means the world to me to be on the first-ever cover(s) of @voguearabia, and I hope that this magazine will show another layer of the fashion industry’s desire to continue to accept, celebrate, and incorporate all people & customs and make everyone feel like they have fashion images and moments they can relate to… & learn and grow in doing so. ❤ Thank you @deenathe1st for your vision and for having me on this cover… by the incredible @inezandvinoodh – so much love.

Teen Vogue writer Eman Bare wrote a piece about the magazine, the cover, and Hadid, and what it means both to her as an individual and to everyone in President Donald Trump‘s America. She says that to her, the Middle East was always the “fashion capital of the world” and that now it’s been “vilified to the point of being watered down to nothing more than wars and violence.”

Hadid is half-Palestinian and her father is Muslim, which Bare says reminds us that “Those who hate immigrants or hate Muslims don’t realize that the people they dehumanize make up the fabric of their society. Muslims aren’t foreign to America or Europe, and we don’t fit into the box that right-wing politicians try to put us in.”

While lots of people shared Bare’s sentiments, the cover has received some backlash on social media. Some felt that putting her on the cover was cultural appropriation. Others simply wish that they had featured an Arabic model:

[image via Vogue]

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