Tahera Rahman is the U.S.’s first hijab-wearing Muslim television reporter. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago. 27-year-old Rahman told that “My boss said ‘that’s fine I respect your decision, but just know that you’re going to get a lot of no’s.’”
The road for her dream job was not smooth for her; she faced rejection time and again because of her headscarf.
Rahman is the daughter of Indian and Pakistani immigrants. As her applications to newsrooms were shot down in quick order, she chose to pursue a backdoor into the newsroom. Finally, she became a producer at WHBF-TV, a CBS-affiliated television station. She continued her struggle to make her way in front of a camera. While facing several rejections she said, “I wrote them an email, my bosses, and I said tell me how I can be the best candidate, tell me what I need to do. And I kept working hard and then I applied the third time and Alhamdulillah I got the job, thank God.”
Since she went on air Feb. 8 of this year making history, she got a number of supporting messages. One such message from a man in Iowa read “I’m a father of two and I’m Christian, but any time you’re in Des Moines, I want you to come have dinner with my family because I want my daughters to know who you are.”