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‘It’s my America too,’ says the first Muslim television reporter in the U.S to wear a hijab.

Tahera Rahman is ushering in a new era of broadcast journalism for Americans, showing that everyone deserves to be represented.

The journalist, from Naperville, Illinois, is a news reporter for WHBF-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Rock Island which serves the Quad cities

Tahera, 27, has vied for the on air position for several years and even after working at the station as a producer for two years, she was overlooked for the job.


But not losing sight of her dream of stepping in front of the camera, Tahera persisted, even when a colleague told her America wasn’t ready for a hijabi TV reporter.



Thankfully, she still applied and her reel proved to be the best out of all the applicants.

The Muslim American Women In Media group confirmed that Tahera was breaking a record being the first female reporter to wear a headscarf while working full time for a mainstream TV station.

She studied at Loyola University Chicago, a Catholic college, throughout which she wore her headscarf.

‘I knew there was no one who looked like me who rushed Greek life, but I did because I wanted to, I would show up to formals and Panhellenic events and I would be the only one who wore a headscarf, but it never stopped me, and I still had fun and I still studied abroad and I still traveled,’ she told Iowa newspaper The Des Moines Register.

After 9/11, Tahera noticed the anti-Muslim rhetoric and the shift in public discourse about Muslim people.

Just like in the U.K, she realised there’s a problem of underrepresentation in the U.S and that there’s a lack of people who look like her on mainstream platforms.

‘That’s when I realized they are talking about us, but there is no one who looked like us who can speak to it truthfully,’ she said.

It was the appointment of the first Somali-American legislator that prompted Tahera to apply for the role again.

Ilhan Omar, a former refugee and mother of three, became a Democratic Farmer Labor Party member of the Minnesota House Of Representatives in November 2016, and so became Tahera’s inspiration.

‘Tell me again about how America is not ready for this,’ she thought.

Live @5&6 tonight talking about QC housing crisis. Tune in @Local4NewsWHBF in 10! pic.twitter.com/CBfwbyBQtL — Tahera Rahman (@TaheraTV) February 16, 2018

While she’s certainly making positive waves – receiving praise from around the country, Europe and even Sudan – not everyone has been so supportive of her new gig.

Since her debut, anti-Islam sites have called for the station to get rid of her or for her to get rid of the headscarf.

But the station has ensured her safety is cared for.

Tahera is now hoping that her talent and work will be the main story and not her headscarf.

‘I am where I belong. And you have to deal with it because this is my America, too’ she added.

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