In a photo captured by Rania Shereen, Egyptian model Iman El Deeb, who appeared in features of notable fashion magazines such as Vogue Italia, oozes raw and natural African beauty with her gorgeous dark curls, golden brown skin and unplucked eyebrows. She stares into the camera with her dark colored eyes with confidence and ease, as the rays of the sun’s light give her a stunning radiant glow. Her distinctive and natural look is rarely seen in most fashion runway shows, magazines or advertisements – both globally and locally. According to a 2015 diversity report by TheFashionSpot.com, out of 143 fashion shows and more than 3,700 models cast during New York Fashion Week’s September shows that year, more than 70 per cent of models were white. This exclusion can date back to the past, as society’s understanding of beauty was profoundly changed following European colonization and imperialism, which popularized the ‘white’ standard of beauty. Nell Irvin Painter, an artist and historian who wrote The History Of White People, notes that early racial theorists, like Christoph Meiners and Johann Blumenbach, labeled “white,” or “Caucasian,” as being the most beautiful of the races, as…
