#TheHabibatiTag is the body positive hashtag actually worth clicking on

A screengrab from Twitter showing some of the woman and girls participating in the hashtag (Twitter)

pMiddle Eastern and North African women have celebrated their ethnicity and challenged dominant beauty standards under a globally trending hashtag./p p#TheHabibatiTag was started by a href=https://twitter.com/saradmahmoud/status/640364094369996800 target=_blankPalestinian American Sara Mahmoud/a and a group of her friends on 5 September and began trending across the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and the UK./pp‘Habibati’ is an Arabic term of endearment, often taken to mean “my love”./ppMs Mahmoud, who lives in Florida, said part of her motivation for starting the hashtag was to boost the profile of women of different ethnicities, “because Middle Easterns and North Africans don’t get enough representation in American pop culture and American media./pp“I felt like my looks weren’t normal and they weren’t ok because all the girls on TV would be pretty, blonde thin girls with blue eyes, a href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34201583 target=_blankshe told emBBC /emTrending/a./ppSince the launch the hashtag’s reach has been huge with more than 20,000 uses of the phrase on social media./ppblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=en100% Afghan and 100% proud of it a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheHabibatiTag?src=hash#TheHabibatiTag/a a href=http://t.co/qLHoyxOD45pic.twitter.com/qLHoyxOD45/a/p— shabz (@nottooshabbbbyy) a href=https://twitter.com/nottooshabbbbyy/status/640404232571498497September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=ena href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheHabibatiTag?src=hash#TheHabibatiTag/a 1/2 Lebanese 1/2 Palestinian full cute a href=http://t.co/409bg8yGUVpic.twitter.com/409bg8yGUV/a/p— Jenna (@Chezmoihoney) a href=https://twitter.com/Chezmoihoney/status/640368947263610880September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=ena href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheHabibatiTag?src=hash#TheHabibatiTag/a Palestinian and proud a href=http://t.co/isBnt8RRNOpic.twitter.com/isBnt8RRNO/a/p— Jaleela (@thatarabchick) a href=https://twitter.com/thatarabchick/status/640368452893413376September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enIRAQI AND PROUD a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheHabibatiTag?src=hash#TheHabibatiTag/a a href=http://t.co/hlNYcKju70pic.twitter.com/hlNYcKju70/a/p— zara (@bagofmiIk) a href=https://twitter.com/bagofmiIk/status/640365730454708225September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enAnother one (Iraqi/Kurd) a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheHabibatiTag?src=hash#TheHabibatiTag/a a href=http://t.co/mMmFSpK39Ypic.twitter.com/mMmFSpK39Y/a/p— mami (@rabiama_) a href=https://twitter.com/rabiama_/status/640404341690601472September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enSYRIAN AND LEBANESE PROUD AF a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/thehabibatitag?src=hash#thehabibatitag/a a href=http://t.co/9HitjIFrHYpic.twitter.com/9HitjIFrHY/a/p— Dana (@ForeignGooods) a href=https://twitter.com/ForeignGooods/status/640412836108308480September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=ena href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheHabibatiTag?src=hash#TheHabibatiTag/a 100% Iranian and so proud a href=http://t.co/gskFvA3rwdpic.twitter.com/gskFvA3rwd/a/p— saffron shawty (@PsychAndCrime) a href=https://twitter.com/PsychAndCrime/status/640455151489261568September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enOmani and so damn proud a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheHabibatiTag?src=hash#TheHabibatiTag/a a href=http://t.co/vbts1zVHBFpic.twitter.com/vbts1zVHBF/a/p— Rola Balushi (@Rolabaluch) a href=https://twitter.com/Rolabaluch/status/640457261924548609September 6, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enI never post selfies on twitter but this tag is da bomb Moroccan a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/thehabibatitag?src=hash#thehabibatitag/a  a href=http://t.co/oIH18mUwCfpic.twitter.com/oIH18mUwCf/a/p— imane (@versacily) a href=https://twitter.com/versacily/status/640885634631122944September 7, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/script /p