Muslim beauty pageant?

On her ‘victory’ Aisha said, “Thanks to Almighty Allah. We are just trying to show the world that Islam is beautiful.” She got the prize of 25 million rupiah ($2,200 or N350, 000) and trips to Mecca and India. The trip to India is meant to help raise money for children in need. Even though […]

On her ‘victory’ Aisha said, “Thanks to Almighty Allah. We are just trying to show the world that Islam is beautiful.”
She got the prize of 25 million rupiah ($2,200 or N350, 000) and trips to Mecca and India. The trip to India is meant to help raise money for children in need.
Even though unlike Miss World beauty contest where contestants wear bikinis and so on, the so-called Muslimah contestants wore long gowns and head scarves, but like Miss World and other fashion shows the Muslimah contestants did the cat walk of walking up and down and wore high heels.
However to make it look Islamic, they were tested on reading the Qur’an, morality and their views on Islam in the modern world.
According to the founder of the Muslimah beauty contest, Eka Shanti who founded it three years ago when she lost her broadcasting job when she decided to start wearing hijab, the pageant was, “Islam’s answer to Miss World.”
The pageant was initially open to only Indonesians (probably that is why many of us are hearing about it for the first time), but this year it included participants from six countries, including Nigeria.
However, rather than promote the virtues of Islam that are sufficient for Muslims no matter where they may find themselves, the Muslimah beauty contest has ridiculed Islam by making it to copy un-Islamic deeds so as to belong and become ‘ relevant’ to the world.
As Muslims, our first priority is to seek Allah’s acceptance by obeying him, but not to seek the acceptance of anybody or the western world by copying what they do, when we know that it is against the dictates of Islam and our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would never have assented to that.
Islam does not believe in flaunting beauty, that is why a woman is supposed to cover her body and only her husband or her mahrams (those relatives that she cannot marry, like father, son, brother, nephew, uncle) can see her adornment.
Besides, beauty contest is seen largely by Muslims as exploitation of women who are seen as sex objects. So they parade up and down posing, flaunting what they have to the admiration of men. And this is promoted by the civilized world!
No wonder some women from western countries that embraced Islam told of the pressure in the west for women to be sexually attractive for men. In other words it is like their whole existence centres on maintaining the status of being sex objects, which could be debasing and depressing.
Therefore, for Muslims that have regarded such contest with disdain to now turn in the guise of ‘answer to Miss World’ to organise their own version is doing harm to Islam.
Islam doesn’t need to give such an answer. The best answer is to practice Islam according to the dictates of the religion.
It is my hope that the organisers would realise that Islam is too big for frivolities and stop this un-Islamic act before some countries copy them and Islam is ridiculed the more. Some schools may also key into it.
In these days where parents are battling with the challenges of the internet and other social media, they don’t want their daughters to be introduced to such un-Islamic acts beautifully wrapped with the cover of Islam.
Parents should be more vigilant, or else the next thing you hear is your daughter has entered one Muslimah contest or another.
I call on our Islamic scholars and clerics to please talk about this anomaly in Islam.
Islam is beautiful enough; it does not need its beauty contest version to emphasis it.