Muslimah World is Islam’s retort to Miss World beauty pageant
Alternative role models for Muslim women … Contestants of the Muslimah World contest in Jakarta, Indonesia
(The Daily Telegraph) – THE finale of a beauty pageant exclusively for Muslim women will take place in the Indonesian capital, in a riposte to the Miss World contest in Bali that has drawn fierce opposition from Islamic radicals.
Twenty contestants will show off the latest Islamic fashion trends in the Muslimah World pageant and will also take part in other activities, such as reciting the Koran, aimed at demonstrating their piety.
“We’re just trying to show the world that Islam is beautiful,” said Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola, a 21-year-old contestant from Nigeria, one of six countries represented at the pageant.
“We are free and the hijab (Muslim headscarf) is our pride.”
The contestants – who can only enter the competition if they wear a headscarf – have undergone three days of “spiritual training” in the run-up to the final in Jakarta, waking up before dawn to pray together and sharpen their Koranic reading skills.
Organisers say they want to show Muslim women there is an alternative to the idea of beauty put forward by the British-run Miss World pageant, and also want to show that opposition to the pageant can be expressed nonviolently.
Organiser Eka Shanti, who founded the pageant three years ago after losing her job as TV news anchor for refusing to remove her headscarf, bills the contest as “Islam’s answer to Miss World”.
