- You can't see my face
but my eyes are like this big right now.
(strong empowering music)
- One of my colleagues flagged a story
about this American fencer who was going to be
the first American athlete to represent
at the Olympics in hijab.
And then I started to learn more about Ibtihaj Muhammad.
I just became really fascinated with her.
Ibtihaj tweets a lot
both about her athletic accomplishments
but also casual instances of islamophobia.
One of the most notable ones
was when she was side by South by Southwest
in Austin Texas.
When she went to go register and get a badge
she was told that in order to take a photo
she needed to remove her hijab.
That's pretty ridiculous.
That was a really telling experience that
millions of Muslims around the country have experienced.
So recently I was invited to an event
in which Ibtihaj Muhammad this incredible fencer
that I've been following for the past four months
was going to teach me how to fence.
You really could poke out an eye.
I suspect that fencing is going to be this
really interesting combination of
like yoga and ballet but also mortal combat.
- We're going to do a short fencing demo.
(people clapping)
- we actually have to change in a locker room.
I thought I could just throw this stuff on over my clothes.
Here we go.
Putting on the fencing gear.
You can't see my face
but my eyes are like this big right now.
- The target area is from the waist up
and we use slashing motions to score our points.
It's almost like modern day Zorro, right?
- Ready?
(hard rock guitar music)
You want to out-think your opponent.
This is a lifetime dream of mine
so to have it finally come true
was just probably the best moment in my life, honestly.
I wanted team USA to be as diverse as
the community I grew up in
or the America that I know.
The Muslim community has always been really
supportive of me even before I qualified for the team.
Now that I'm able to be, you know,
the speaking voice for my community,
I think that it will move, you know,
the perception of Muslims in a positive way.
- Wow!
Talking to Ibtihaj, finally being able to meet her,
it was really awesome.
- I really like Drake, love Rihanna's new album.
- She's a Drake and Rihanna fan,
which is really really good to know.
And I think she's gonna do
some great things in the Olympics.
Can we take a quick, like, two second selfie?
- Yeah.
Filter it so I look cute.