Yasmeen Ghauri (Urdu: ?????? ???? ) (born March 23, 1971 in Montreal, Canada) is a Canadian model of Pakistani descent born to a German mother and a Pakistani Muslim father. Her father is a Muslim 'imam' or 'cleric' hailing from Pakistan who opposed her pursuit of modelling as a career.[1] Yasmeen is best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel and was admired as a great runway model.

Profile

Yasmeen was born to Pakistani Moin Ghauri and German Linda Ghauri. While her father was an imam, a Muslim cleric for the Islamic Community of Quebec (ICQ), her mother was opposed of her pursuing modelling as a career. Early on in her life, Yasmeen had a troublesome childhood and was tormented by her classmates at school. This led her disociate from children from her age group and she joined older children in her neighbourhood. Her strict religious upbringing had led her to fall into a state of self-doubt. Yasmeen was reportedly working at a McDonalds restaurant at the age of 17 when she got noticed by Edward Zacharia, artistic director of the Platine Coiffure, a hair-salon in Montreal. She was walking outside the salon when Edward caught sight of her and brought her in to Joseph Del Tortoon, the owner of the salon. He had been working with models for the past 12 years and knew instantly Yasmeen could be one of the very best. Standing at a height of 5 ft 10 inches with her exquisite looks and slender curvy frame, she had what it takes to be a model but on that particular day she was having a bad hair day. Del Tortoon describes her appearance as being 'messy'.

At the restaurant where she worked, she would often turn up dressed in black from head to toe and was recently named the Employee of the Month. People would usually cite her as one with a rebellious nature, her brown hair was dyed black and her toe-nails polished black as well. Zacharia and Del Tortoon soon transformed her into a fashion-smart teenage urbanite. They told her to join an agency in Montreal where her modelling career took off. Zacharia even went to arrange photo shoots for Yasmeen to appear on some postcards, some of which featured her topless with her hands covering her breasts at the corner of St Lawrence Boulevard, Montreal. The postcards were never distributed because her father disapproved of them. There was a shift in the mentality of the people in the fashion industry and where once the all-American models were the only contenders, more ethnic inclusions to the catwalk were more than welcome. Yasmeen's coffee-coloured skin, brown silky hair and brown eyes were a perfect fit. She would henceforth be called an "exotic" beauty, something Yasmeen would humbly not want to associate with her name. Yasmeen met Carol Bernardi six weeks after she was discovered who found her work at local shows in Montreal and who later introduced her to managers of the New York-based Next Management Co.

While she was off pursuing her new-found interest in modelling as a career, her father wasn't much happy about her chosen career. He had gotten divorced in 1980 and Yasmeen lived with him. She remembers making him seriously unhappy when she told him she was to take up modelling. When all hell broke loose, she decided to move to New York, where she was lucky enough to model for Versace in 1990. Here she got noticed by the fashion police, critics and labels alike. She was soon praised for her poise and an exaggerated walk on the runway that earned her a title of 'the panther'. Her popularity on runways for collections and couture shows grew even more. Her curvaceous features were a particular talk of town, New York Times quoting her exotic walk as a "ball-bearing swivel of her hips". Her appearance on the catwalks prompted part of what is now termed in fashion as the "Canadian invasion". Added with the likes of Linda Evangelista and Shalom Harlow, Yasmeen is said to have brought Canada to the fashion scene in the 90s.

Retirement and marriage

When Yasmeen stepped out of the Yves Saint Laurent show in 1996 at the last minute, speculations arose that she might be retiring. She however was planning on pursuing a degree in business upon the advice of her long-term friend Ralph, a law firm executive and a real-estate businessman. She named her daughter Maya meaning faith in Urdu and although she lives fairly away from media attention, she is pretty active with fund-raising events, most notable of which have been the charity for saving Germany's famous Black Forest.