RIGHTS-BRITAIN: World Has No Place For Miss World

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Nov 25 2002 (IPS) - Miss World is homeless in London these days, and so she deserves to be, feminist and Muslim leaders said Monday.

Eighty women from different countries out to take part in the Miss World contest flew back to London Sunday from Nigeria following clashes over the contest that have left more than 200 dead. More than 1,000 people were admitted to hospitals for injuries during the rioting, and more than 12,000 are estimated to have become homeless.

The rioting followed an article in a newspaper ‘ThisDay’ that said that the Prophet Mohammed would have approved of a beauty contest and might have picked one of the contestants as his wife. The newspaper apologised for the remark, but it was too late to stop the rioting.

The women participating in the Miss World contest, or ‘beauties’ as the organisers like to call them, were flown out of Nigeria to London. They landed in the eye of another kind of storm on arrival.

The contest is being opposed in Britain by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and other Islamic organisations. "People have to be judged by their deeds and their actions, not by the appearance and their skin," MCB spokeswoman Sarah Joseph told IPS Monday. "This so-called beauty contest is just a part of the whole beauty fascism."

There is growing opposition in London that the beauty contest, which lost its popularity and its place in London over the years can be held now after all the killing in Nigeria. "These girls will be wearing swimwear dripping with blood," writer Muriel Gray told The Guardian newspaper. "It is completely despicable that we have agreed to host this travesty."

Muriel Gray said the events in Nigeria "highlight that misogyny exists on every level: from the sharia laws of the Muslim fundamentalists, down to the so-called civilised west, which didn’t protest over the treatment of Amina Lawal and is now agreeing to host this spectacle."

Gray added: "I am especially ashamed that Miss England and Miss Scotland are still taking part. I would have thought that they had more sense."

Some of the contestants had dropped out of the competition in protest over the treatment of Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who has been condemned to death by stoning under sharia law for having a baby outside of marriage.

Contestants from Norway, Denmark, Costa Rica and South Africa have withdrawn following the controversy. Miss Canada, Lynsey Bennett, is reported to have returned to her native Ottawa.

Miss Denmark, Masja Juel, said: "The competition should have been moved out of Nigeria many weeks ago, before people were killed. It is disgusting that people have lost their lives because of Miss World. In any event, the organisers should have moved it in protest of the treatment of Amina Lawal."

Oscar-winning actress and now Labour MP Glenda Jackson said: "We can only appeal to the conscience of the organisers, but the best thing to do after such fratricide and bloodletting is to cancel the whole competition."

That is not to be because the organisers say they have sold television rights in 130 countries. There are too many millions of dollars at stake for the organisers to cancel the show.

The show has to go out live December 7, organiser Julia Morley told media representatives in London Monday. She dismissed the controversy over the show. "Where you have got an international show, you have got a lot of controversy because it is used as a political football," she said.

Morley said there is nothing wrong with the contest. "What was a mistake was a journalist making a remark he shouldn’t have made," she said. "It isn’t the fault of the girls or any of us."

What is making many Londoners angry is that too many of the ‘beauties’ seemed not particularly bothered by the killings in Nigeria. A hairdresser who accompanied the women on their flight to London said at the airport: "All the girls wanted to look their best, so they all clamoured for the bath room towards the end of the flight."

On Monday the contest had a date but had not found a place. Grosvernor House in central London offered its premises – at a price. But there were few offers from the best places in London for such an event.

Not only is Miss World finding it hard to find a place in London this time, there are fewer and fewer countries now willing to host the contest. Indian sponsors have turned away from the contest following strong protests and at least one suicide during a recent Miss World contest in Bangalore.

Europe and North America have shunned the contest for years. There was an isolated instance of revival when it was staged in the Millennium Dome in London two years back. But that was more of an Indian event located in London, and the winner was inevitably Miss India.

There have been attempts to keep the contest going in the developing world. The winner last year was Miss Nigeria, and the location in Nigeria this year was a part of the move to cash in on its popularity in the developing world. Now that too is declining. No British TV station wants to show the contest December 7. A location in London will be little more than a studio for broadcasting the event.

RIGHTS-BRITAIN: World Has No Place For Miss World

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Nov 25 2002 (IPS) - Miss World is homeless in London these days, and so she deserves to be, feminist and Muslim leaders said Monday.
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