Halal at its best: Islamic Miss World planned
The dispute over the Miss World 2012 beauty pageant currently held in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim country – and strongly rejected by the hardline Muslim community, is taking a bizarre turn.
Muslim women have launched the “Muslimah World” contest to be held on September 18 in Jakarta that defines itself as “Islam’s answer to Miss World”, the pageant’s founder Eka Shanti said in press briefing on September 14.
“Muslimah World is a beauty pageant, but the requirements are very different from Miss World – you have to be pious, be a positive role model and show how you balance a life of spirituality in today’s modernised world,” Shanti told AFP newswire.
Contestants will be judged on the three “S” – smartness, style and sholehah (good morals), she added.
The 20 Muslimah World finalists were chosen from more than 500, who took part in online rounds, reciting Koranic verses and telling stories of how they came to wear the Islamic headscarf, a requirement for the pageant.
The finalists are from Iran, Malaysia, Brunei, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Indonesia and will parade Islamic fashions in what Shanti says is an opportunity to show young Muslim women they do not need to show their “immodest” parts – including their hair and bare shoulders – to be beautiful.
The Muslimah World finalists are expected to be welcomed with open arms, with hundreds of women wearing headscarves planning to take part in what they call an “elegance rally” Sunday to greet the contestants. Most importantly, the event has the blessing of Islamic scholars.
In Bali, the location of the real Miss World 2013 contest, armed police meanwhile have been guarding the Miss World venue, as well as hotels linked to the competition. Thousands of Islamic hardliners protested in half a dozen cities in Indonesia last week, burning effigies of the pageant’s organisers and dressing up goats in Miss World sashes.
Some brandished placards declaring they were “ready to die for the Miss World contest to be scrapped”. Critics say the competition insults Islam and exploits women. On September 13 at a rally in Jakarta, 300 members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front gathering, holding signs that read “Miss World is a whore contest”.
The dispute over the Miss World 2012 beauty pageant currently held in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country - and strongly rejected by the hardline Muslim community, is taking a bizarre turn. Muslim women have launched the "Muslimah World" contest to be held on September 18 in Jakarta that defines itself as "Islam's answer to Miss World", the pageant's founder Eka Shanti said in press briefing on September 14. "Muslimah World is a beauty pageant, but the requirements are very different from Miss World - you have to be pious, be a positive role model and show how...
The dispute over the Miss World 2012 beauty pageant currently held in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim country – and strongly rejected by the hardline Muslim community, is taking a bizarre turn.
Muslim women have launched the “Muslimah World” contest to be held on September 18 in Jakarta that defines itself as “Islam’s answer to Miss World”, the pageant’s founder Eka Shanti said in press briefing on September 14.
“Muslimah World is a beauty pageant, but the requirements are very different from Miss World – you have to be pious, be a positive role model and show how you balance a life of spirituality in today’s modernised world,” Shanti told AFP newswire.
Contestants will be judged on the three “S” – smartness, style and sholehah (good morals), she added.
The 20 Muslimah World finalists were chosen from more than 500, who took part in online rounds, reciting Koranic verses and telling stories of how they came to wear the Islamic headscarf, a requirement for the pageant.
The finalists are from Iran, Malaysia, Brunei, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Indonesia and will parade Islamic fashions in what Shanti says is an opportunity to show young Muslim women they do not need to show their “immodest” parts – including their hair and bare shoulders – to be beautiful.
The Muslimah World finalists are expected to be welcomed with open arms, with hundreds of women wearing headscarves planning to take part in what they call an “elegance rally” Sunday to greet the contestants. Most importantly, the event has the blessing of Islamic scholars.
In Bali, the location of the real Miss World 2013 contest, armed police meanwhile have been guarding the Miss World venue, as well as hotels linked to the competition. Thousands of Islamic hardliners protested in half a dozen cities in Indonesia last week, burning effigies of the pageant’s organisers and dressing up goats in Miss World sashes.
Some brandished placards declaring they were “ready to die for the Miss World contest to be scrapped”. Critics say the competition insults Islam and exploits women. On September 13 at a rally in Jakarta, 300 members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front gathering, holding signs that read “Miss World is a whore contest”.
