The Statue of Liberty was originally designed to be a Muslim woman, the Smithsonian Institution’s magazine says.
 
An article on the government-administered museum’s blog, Smart News, claims one of the designers of Lady Liberty drew inspiration from monuments in Egypt and originally intended to construct a veiled female peasant on the Suez Canal.
 
The article cites historian Barry Moreno, author of multiple books about the statue, whose Islamic origins were also reported last week by The Daily Beast.