In the years after 9/11, Amani Khatahtbeh started MuslimGirl.com, which now reaches a global audience: 'Our goal is to reclaim our narrative.'
Today she travels the world, attends a red-carpet movie premiere and sits on panels with astronauts, former presidents and feminist icons.
She was 9 when the airliners struck the World Trade Center towers, and she remembers the warning of her Jordanian immigrant father: “They’re going to blame us.” “I had to learn as much as I possibly could about my own religion, the ins and outs of it, what Islamophobes were saying about it, so that I could understand how to respond,” she said.She started the blog at 17 with help from friends at her local mosque. Most of the work is still a grassroots effort. Her younger brother, Ameer, a journalism student at Rutgers University, helps run communications. Although the site pays a group of editors, most articles are written by Muslim women volunteers.
The site and its founder have attracted a legion of devoted fans who follow her on social media under the hashtag “#muslimgirlarmy. She also has detractors who say she is too Americanized or too progressive. Some question her appearance, such as the way she wears her hijab or shows her arms. She also has tattoos, an eyebrow ring and long manicured nails.
“It was such a full-circle moment for me, because when I was a little girl, Princess Jasmine was one of the only representations that I had growing up,” she said.
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