Nigerian wins World Muslim beauty contest

A 21-year-old Nigerian woman, Aisha
Ajibola, has emerged the winner of a
beauty pageant that is exclusively for
Muslims in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia,
on Wednesday.
She was chosen among 20 contestants
from six countries to wear the crown in
the 2013 Muslimah World beauty pageant,
ahead of the controversial Miss World
event scheduled to take place in the same
country in a few weeks from now.
According to a report monitored online,
all the 20 finalists in the contest were
covered from head to toe during the
event. They were required to wear
headscarves, stroll up and down and do a
catwalk in elaborately embroidered
dresses and stilettos before an audience
comprising religious scholars and other
devout Muslims.
A panel of judges chose the winner on
the basis of how well she recited Quranic
verses and her views on Islam in the
modern world.
In post event interview, the organisers of
the pageant, which was held in a
shopping mall in Jakarta, said it was
designed primarily to challenge the idea
of beauty as expressed by the Miss World
pageant.
Also, the founder of the pageant, Eka
Shanti, said the timing of the event was
intended to show that there were
alternative role models for Muslim
women around the world.
In recent time, thousands of Indonesian
Muslims took to the streets to protest the
hosting of the Miss World pageant in the
country. The protesters had denounced
the contest as erotic and burnt effigies of
the organisers to register their anger.
The government had been moved by the
protests to order the organisers to move
the pageant to the Island of Bali, also in
the country.