This is not your regular beauty pageant. No swimsuits, no en vogue dresses and no other religion is allowed except Islam. A counteranswer of hardline Islamists in Indonesia to Miss World, Muslimah World beauty contest is about being a modest Muslim woman. All contestants paraded onstage with a hijab, showing their skills in memorizing verses from Q’uran and answering questions regarding the tenets of Islam. It used to be an Indonesian contest only but for the first time in three years, the pageant accepted foreign delegates.
The winner of the Miss Muslimah contest is Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola of Nigeria. This is a beauty contest that hardline Muslims in Indonesia would love to see as opposed to the Miss World contest where contestants are now more focused on charity works than parading swimsuits onstage.
Is there are place for a beauty pageant like Muslimah World within the context of missosology? Is a pageant solely focused on religion acceptable to the pageantry world? Will this contest have a future and could be a global event soon? Will this be a counterforce against conventional beauty pageants?
