Mixed reactions trail Miss Muslimah beauty pageant

In what they described as an ‘Islamic response’ to the Miss World beauty pageant which provoked protests across Indonesia, the World Muslimah Foundation organized a Miss Muslimah World contest.

 A Nigerian, Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola, was crowned in Jakarta, Indonesia as the winner of the competition which featured 20 participants from Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Brunei, Nigeria and Bangladesh. The pageant also elicited mixed reactions from Muslims


A Nigerian, Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola, came first in the World Muslimah 2013, a Muslim only beauty pageant held in Indonesia. Aishah who was shocked to be announced the winner made a sujudush shukur (a thanksgiving prostration) and praised God for the victory. “Thanks to almighty Allah. We’re just trying to show the world that Islam is beautiful,” the 21-year-old Nigerian said.

Although Aishah said the pageant “was not really about competition,” she received 25 million rupiah ($2,200 or N350, 000) and trips to Mecca and India as prizes. Her trip to India will help raise money for children in need.

Like the regular pageants, the women walk up and down the catwalk and wore stilettos. But unlike Miss World, they were required to wear headscarves and be completely covered from head to foot.

They were also tested on morality, their views on Islam in the modern world and their proficiency in reciting the Qur’an.

The contest was organized as a riposte to the British-run Miss World pageant.

Eka Shanti founded the pageant three years ago when she lost her broadcasting job as she decided to start wearing hijab. The pageant is “Islam’s answer to Miss World,” she said.

“This year we deliberately held our event just before the Miss World final to show that there are alternative role models for Muslim women,” she said.

“But it’s about more than Miss World. Muslim women are increasingly working in the entertainment industry in a sexually explicit way, and they become role models, which is a concern.”

The pageant was initially opened to only Indonesians, but this year, they included participants from six countries, including Iran, Nigeria, Brunei, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Applicants had to apply online and share experiences about their first hijab experience – the finalists were chosen from a pool of more than 500 applicants.

Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population hosts this year’s Miss World competition, but the competition came under heavy street demonstrations by Indonesians who burned effigies of the organizers and promised to do everything to stop it. The protesters were not appeased even when the organizers decided to replace the swim suit contest with another event. This prompted the venue of the pageant, which is scheduled to hold on September 28, to be changed from a place near Jakarta to the Hindu-dominated Bali Island.

Although some religious scholars sat as judges at the World Muslimah, the pageant didn’t receive support from some Nigerian Muslim scholars. “The pageant is haram [forbidden],” said Sheikh Isa Adeeyo. “It does not matter what it’s called, there’s no such thing in Islam.”

Abu Zainab, another Nigerian scholar based abroad, said the Prophet (SAW) prohibited imitation: “If one imitates another nation or people, he will be from them.”

Also reacting to the Miss Muslimah pageant, a Muslim blogger based in Benin Edo State Eseoghene Al-Faruq Ohwojeheri dismissed the contest as un-Islamic, adding that it is wrong to create “another pointless humiliating adventure called World Muslimah Pageant” just because there is Miss World, which is apparently an evil dehumanization of women.

“When the women of then pagan Makkah will dance naked in public, the Prophet (SAW) did not gather women with hijab to dance with clothes somewhere else; he stayed away and the people later realised that it was better,” Ohwojeheri said in an article published online.

“I’ll end with a question for the organizers of this show of shame. Do you sincerely think if Miss World organizers today insist that the ladies on the pageant wear what can be mistaken for hijab as your girls wear then Miss World has become Islamic? Of course it still would not be Islamic, because in Islam we do not parade our women, that on its own is forbidden. Our women travel body-guarded by a male relative. That shows how much protection Islam gives them from the same spotlight you have put them,” he said.

However, Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) Professor Ishaq Akintola, while congratulating Aishah Ajibola of the University of Lagos for emerging the winner of the world Muslimah contest, said “we align with the contest in view of the fact that the criteria were not indecent exposure and provocative postures. The contestants were tested in the recitation of the glorious Qur’an, Islamic historiography, Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic current affairs.

“We equally congratulate the organizers of the contest as they used the global event to create great awareness for the rest of the world to show that Muslims have their own values and norms concerning beauty and intelligence.

“The event has also proved beyond reasonable doubt that Islam does not repress its women. Neither does it teach pushing them to the background. The demonstration of high level of exposure to education in various fields by the contestants also points to the fact that Muslim women pursue education and that Islam is not averse to educating the womenfolk,” he said.

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