Zainab bint Younus is a Canadian Muslim woman who writes a popular blog under the moniker, The Salafi Feminist. Since 2006, she has published posts about topics related to Islamic teaching, various issues that Muslim women face, profiles of significant Muslim women in history, and reflections on how feminism relates to Islam. Zainab also posts pieces on her Facebook page, where she currently has nearly 20,000 followers.
Zainab is also active in promoting an alternative image of Muslim women who wear the niqab face veil by celebrating the images and creative work of other niqabi women. In the summer of 2015, Zainab collected a series of self-portraits from other women who wear the niqab and posted a gallery of these photos on popular sites, such as the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Medium. The women used these self-portraits to fight against the incessant images that portray veiled Muslim women as oppressed and lacking individuality. You can read more about how niqabi women are creating their own visual self-representations in this previous post.
In the following video, I interviewed Zainab bint Younus about this photo series that she curated of niqabi women, the common misconceptions of veiled women, and the potential of visual images to shift these misconceptions and stereotypes. Zainab also discusses some of the ways that she creates an individualized visual style with her favorite clothing items and fashion accessories.
Finally, here is a gallery of some of the images that bint Younus received from niqabi women throughout the world.
Kristin M. Peterson 
One thought