PRAMBANAN: A Tunisian woman called out ‘Free Palestine and the Syrian people’ after being declared as 2014’s Muslim beauty pageant at ‘World Muslimah Award’ contest organised in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
Fatma Ben Guefrache, a 25-year-old computer scientist, won the top title amongst eighteen finalists of the beauty contest organised in theme of anti-Western contests which firstly drew global attention in 2013 when Miss World 2013 took place in Indonesia.
Guefrache was awarded with a gold watch, a gold dinar, and mini pilgrimage to Mecca.
She broke down in tears and her winning sentence was a pray before Allah Almighty to help her in the mission and free Palestine and the Syrian people.
The contestants were required to wear the Muslim headscarf and judged not only on merit of their appearance but also on how well they recite Quranic verses and their Islamic views in the modern world.
British contestant Dina Torkia said she hoped this year’s World Muslimah Award would not only provide a contrast to Western beauty pageants, but would also dispel prejudices against Islam.
“I think the most important thing is to show that we are really normal girls, we are not married to terrorists. This scarf on my head isn’t scary,” she told AFP.
During their time in Indonesia, contestants have visited orphanages and nursing homes, and had their pictures taken at Borobudur, a famous Buddhist temple close to Yogyakarta, Java’s cultural heartland.
The finale takes place on a stage against the backdrop of Prambanan, a ninth-century complex of Hindu temples on the island of Java that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hosting the event at a Hindu site was a conscious decision to show that Muslims are accepting of other religions, organisers said.
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