The New York Times profiles 23-year old Iranian-American fashion blogger Hoda Katebi who earlier this year made an appearance on a local Chicago news program where was asked a question about Iran’s nuclear weapons (uh, what does that have to do with fashion?) and when she answered, the show hosts responded with “you don’t sound like an American.” The clip went viral on social media, and inspired opinion articles on various publications. “I think it was refreshing for people to see a person of color having a moment of truth on television,” comments Ms. Katebi.
Since then, the blogger has been keeping busy, having just released a photography book entitled Tehran Streetstyle, as well as continuing her work on Joojoo Azad, a politically charged fashion blog. Her latest venture is Joojoo Journal goes live next month. She depicts the new project is a “multilingual, multimedia publication where diasporic, marginalized and ‘subaltern’ voices are uplifted.”
Describing herself as a “sarcastic Muslim-Iranian creative and community organizer,” Ms. Katebi is not shy about calling out social injustices, and takes some issue with artist Shepard Fairey’s popular poster of a Muslim woman donning the American flag as a head scarf. “The only time you see a Muslim woman’s face everywhere is when it is created by a white American man,” she states. “We as Muslims are constantly trying to prove that we are American enough and that we have to wrap this country’s flag around us to be accepted.”
