Twenty year old economics student from the northern city of Kirkuk, Shayma Qassim Abdulrahman who was crowned as ‘Miss Iraq’ forty years after its last contest held has been receiving threatening calls from ISIS.
They plan to kidnap her if she doesn’t join their terror group, but Shayma has refused to oblige to their threats. She says she will continue forward despite any obstacles and will represent Iraq in the next Miss Universe competition.
The Miss Iraq competition had many set-backs which caused it to take place in December instead of October as scheduled. Tribal leaders forbade all women in their family from participating, which led to a large drop in the number of interested participants. Two contestants were said to have dropped out after receiving similar threats from ISIS.
Miss Iraq had to beg and convince her parents to allow her take part in the contest. The event held at a hotel in Baghdad and she was crowned. After winning, she said the competition was not just about a fashion show or beauty alone. She said the Iraqi people were badly in need of such cultural activities after the turmoil the country had been through and she hoped to reflect the culture of Iraq.
Shayma is truly a brave lady, she told NBC News: “ I am afraid of nothing, because I am confident that what I am doing is not wrong.”
Before her, the last crowned queen in 1972 was Wijdan Burhan al-deen who also represented them at the Miss Universe competition. Since then, none of their beauty contests have met international standard.
No comments:
Post a Comment