PHOTOS Meet Nina Bazzy Aliahmad, the sexy businesswoman star of All-American Muslim
TLC premiered its ground-breaking new reality series All-American Muslim Sunday night, taking cameras inside the rarely-seen lives of five Muslim American families living in Dearborn, Michigan. “Each episode offers an intimate look at their customs and celebrations, as well as the misconceptions, conflicts and differences they face outside – and within – their own community,” the initial press release stated.
One of the stars of the show facing the most conflicts and differences within her own community is Nina Bazzy Aliahmad, a towering sexy blond business woman who is devout in her Muslim faith without buying into their traditional ideas of how a woman should present herself in public. Here is the Bazzy family bio from TLC followed by Nina’s description of herself from the premiere episode:
Nina was raised in the tight-knit and mostly Arab-American Muslim area of Dearborn, in a family where devout Muslim cultural practices are still the daily lifestyle. While Nina’s mother still wears the traditional headscarf (or “hijab”) and strictly adheres to traditional cultural Muslim norms, Nina is her own person and very much walking to the ‘beat of her own drum’ in this community. She is married with a young son, Andre, 6. An ambitious businesswoman, Nina is determined to push past cultural barriers within her own family and the Dearborn community in order to open her own nightclub in a traditionally male-dominated and conservative landscape.
^ Nina Bazzy in some very non-traditional Muslim garb!
“I don’t think I need to express my religion through the way I dress, so I’m not wearing the hajib, and I’m a strong woman so people don’t know how to really take me. I’m not a stay-at-home mom. I am a career woman. I’m proud of who I am, I like who I am.
“I am a party planner, all-around business woman, I think I’m very ambitious, strong – I go out after what I want in life. I might turn a few heads, but I do what I have to do to make it in this world.
“There are a lot of business women in Dearborn. I don’t think there are a lot like me.”
Nina has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Finance from the University of Michigan and we see during the premiere that she wants to put that education to work by opening up her own nightclub in Dearborn, an idea her more conservative male Muslim friend seems a bit apprehensive about:
“I don’t know about clubs, you know? Somewhere else yeah, but here it’s a little bit risky,” he says.
Nina seems disappointed and asks, “You don’t think I’ll do well though?”
“You’re a girl, you know,” her friend says. “You have other things to do. You have your family. A club is not for you. It’s for someone like – so really, a woman, she’s not going to handle a club. Did you ever see a woman owning a club?”
“Yeah. And they’re real successful.”
“I don’t think so.”
It appears as though Nina made some slight alterations to her dream to open a club and is now President of Nina Sky Productions, whoich does concert booking and other events in the Dearborn area. Something tells me the disapproval Nina receives from some of those in her community is going to do very little to limit her success!
Want to see more of Nina and find out more about what it’s like being a Muslim living in America? Be sure to tune in to All-American Muslim on TLC Sunday nights at 10/9c.