Rising model Ugbad Abdi poses in ‘A Legend has fallen and a new legacy RISES’, a tribute to famed photographer Peter Lindbergh, who captured these images. Katie Trotter styles Ugbad for Vogue Arabia October 2019.

Vogue Arabia chats with the refugee who was born in Kismayo, Somalia before fleeing to Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, where she lived for nine years. Ugbad’s family eventually relocated to Iowa, living in one of America’s oldest Muslim communities.

AOC has covered Ugbad’s background — as we do in-depth and on a continuing basis for all the refugee models. It’s always a great moment to highlight America’s refugee models — now mostly American citizens, who have experienced the best of America at a time that Trump condemns them.

I would love to have a presentation of these models’ voices — from every country — on prime time TV by the Democratic party. It could be a stunningly original presentation, as these young women have much to say about the world. Australia probably has the US beat, when it comes to cultivating glorious new refugee models.

Wherever they come from, the fashion industry is deeply appreciative of their presence at this difficult time in international history. It was a fellow Somali refugee Halima Aden who showed Ugbad that modest Muslim women could also be high-fashion models. Neither woman has looked back metaphorically, although Halima flies home to Minnesota on every available weekend.

Read more of Ugbad’s interview at Vogue Arabia.