Misbah Naseer, 27, has changed her view of beauty since arriving in Canada. Photo courtesy of Misbah Naseer

When Misbah Naseer, 27, came to Canada from Saudi Arabia at the age of 12, her idea of beautiful was completely different from her peers in grade eight.

“When I moved here, it was all about pop stars, Britney Spears, Katie Holmes in Dawson Creek,” says Naseer, a research analyst for the Government of Canada in Vancouver.

“My exposure was more traditional Bollywood, and it wasn’t as modern.”

It didn’t take long for Naseer, who wore a hijab and long clothing because of her cultural and religious beliefs, to figure out what was considered beautiful in her new country.

“The more skin you show, the tighter your clothes were, the more beautiful you were. The more I covered up, the more I got made fun of. People would ask, why are you hiding? Because you’re so ugly?”

According to Wendy Chan, a sociology and anthropology professor at Simon Fraser University (SFU), immigrant’s perceptions of beauty in our society haven’t been well studied.

Chan says that, although there’s a lot of discussion around what constitutes beauty, there hasn’t been much research done on young immigrant or minority group perspectives.

In her view, gaining an understanding of what immigrants think about beauty when they come to Canada would be interesting.

“What does it mean to be beautiful from a young immigrant’s perspective?” she asks.

Struggling with differences in style

Bahar Sassani, 33, moved to Winnipeg from Tehran, Iran at age 17 and says that on the first day of school she went home and cried because people were in sweatpants.

“I had never seen this. I was used to well-dressed people, even with [a] headdress on, it was the nicest headdress.”

Bahar Sassani. Photo courtesy of Bahar Sassani

Sassani, a Vancouver executive manager, says Tehran was extremely fashion-forward due to its proximity to Europe. She says it was a shock to come from a place of 12 million people, where there is more plastic surgery done than in LA, to descend on a population of only 600, 000.

Growing up, Sassani says her mother taught her that hair and make-up should be done according to the latest fashion trends, and being slim was very important. She was used to seeing her mother wearing the latest brand names and was allowed to wear make-up from the age of 15 on.

Jo-Anne Lee, a sociologist teaching women’s studies at the University of Victoria, suggests that the type of reaction Sassani had to Canadian society around notions of beauty and style isn’t surprising.

“Many immigrants are coming from world class, cosmopolitan cities with Prada and from places that are manufacturing the clothes and fashion we’re consuming.”

Lee says the perception some have of immigrants with traditional ideals of beauty from the ‘60s or ‘70s should be put out of our minds.

“We’re in a global culture and they’re consuming media just like us.”

What the men think

Joseph Nakhla, 39, came to Canada from Egypt at 16. He says he wasn’t shocked by the pop stars and short skirts when arriving in Canada, because pop culture had made its way to Egypt, and he had been exposed through media.

However Nakhla, founder and CEO of Vancouver-based company bazinga!, says growing up he believed beauty started and stopped at the face.

“When you heard a girl was beautiful, you’d get a screen shot of the face to define beauty.”

But, in Canada, he says everything became compartmentalized.

“The whole package got bigger – is your nose too big or small? Are your hips too big? Are your legs nice?”

Nakhla says that being an attractive guy in Egypt was all about being athletic. In Canada, he says the quest to be good looking doesn’t stop at one thing.

“First you have to make money, and drive a nice car and have your hair a certain way – I didn’t feel that peer pressure in Egypt,” says Nakhla.

Beauty Redefined

Fifteen years later, Nasser says she has redefined beauty on her own terms and incorporates what she likes about Canadian style with her religious beliefs. Instead of the traditional Pakistani clothes she used to wear in high school, she is comfortable in western clothes.

“I have now been here longer than I was in Saudi Arabia, and jeans are [my] culture to me now.”

She continues to wear her hijab and says that, outside of Canada, she was taught that if most of your body is covered, all that’s left to define a person’s beauty are conversations, intelligence and what you say. Nasser says her basic definition of beauty hasn’t changed much since she arrived.

“For me beauty is not about being skinny, it’s about being smart.