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.