Daily Times

The recent Miss World beauty
pageant held in Indonesia, besides its usual glitz, glitter and the ambience of the ‘beauty babes’ from 126 countries, also had some remarkably unusual features. First, the organisers of the event elicited an exceptionally bold initiative to take the contest to the most populous Muslim country known for its marathon of draconian dictatorships and the ravages of extremist Muslim militants, particularly on the clubs and resorts frequented by foreigners and tourists. The Indonesian authorities and the sponsors allowing the contest evidently also seem to have evolved sufficient courage, confidence and maturity to brace the boil and the brawls that were invariably bound to be fanned by fundamentalist factions to thwart the event. Protests by firebrand extremists indeed erupted almost with the announcement of event yet the authorities employed quite the adequate security to stem violence and any large-scale disruption. The organisers however, were acquiesced into replacing their trademark bikini round by a sarong splash and shifting the finale from the capital Jakarta to Bali Island, considered to be relatively safer because of its predominantly Hindu population. About 1,000 protesters, however, still supplicated in a mosque near Jakarta, hoping, perhaps that the plumes and power of their prayer would erase the immorality and the sins spawned by the barer female skins and scintillating styles seen at the beauty contest.

Yet while the male fundamentalists fielded their protests and prayers, the female activists orchestrated a far more interesting and curious step to organise an analogous beauty contest meant exclusively for the Muslim women participants. The competition opened with an initial online vetting of over 500 aspirants, selected 10 finalists from Malaysia, Bangladesh, Iran, Brunei and Nigeria, and crowned the 21-year-old Obabiyi Aisha Ajibolah from Nigeria as the best Muslim woman of the world. The details about the parameters employed to evaluate the relative beauty of the participants, reported in the world media, however, have been quite contradictory and confusing. Piety, purdah, proficiency in Islamic principles and pronounced spiritualty were prescribed as the prerequisites for the participation. A question asked, for instance, was that how the participants came to wear hijab. The finalists cascading the catwalk, nonetheless were seen in elaborately embroidered and embellished gowns, stilettos and showering smiles on the judges and the spectators thus obfuscating the entire concept about the hijab or the veils. The participants similarly were made to recite Koranic verses and imparted a training for tahajjud, i.e. an extra predawn prayer over and above the five prayers taken to be mandatory by a larger swath of the believers.

Rendering verses and recounting Islamic principles, obviously, cannot estimate the inner piety as even many non-Muslims are also renowned for their extensive knowledge about them. Espousal to tahajjud, likewise, may be taken as a special inclination and devotion to the Lord. But how a training comprising merely three prayers can be taken as the indicator of an ingrained inner piety is evidently quite baffling. Then the prayer being an inner virtue, the quality of which can be exclusively assayed by the Lord, was equated with the veil, which is evidently a visible phenomenon open to any interested observer. The purpose behind the venture perhaps van can be better surmised by the reports that the event was mostly initiated and steered by Eka Shanti, axed as a TV anchor for refusing to remove her headscarf.

The contest, thus, primarily seems to be a ploy to promote, popularise and proliferate the veil vogue and should accordingly have been called the Veiled Women Contest or a Veil-Wearing Contest. But sponsoring even a veil-wearing contest could be equally daunting or an impossible mission. A real impediment is the inability to actually measure the beauty of the wearers because the veils are innately prescribed to hide and not to reveal their persona, style and grace. It would evidently become a mere comparison of the style of their veils. But the veils, unfortunately, come in so many shapes and styles, spanning not merely sartorial but even sectarian and regional variations. Comparing one type against the other would be utterly unfair and impractical. To overcome this, separate contests and criteria for different categories of the veils would have to be created. Even then the wearers with the full-length veils could never be compared. Leaving this genre out, despite their assertion of upholding the real ultimate model of veil, could be another confusing discrimination.

The passion to measure the personal piety could be equally arduous and a famous masterpiece by Maupassant, in this context, could be quite apt reminder. The revered Mother Superior in a town used to select the most beautiful, chaste, pious and virtuous girl without the slightest blemish on her conduct or any untoward gossip or rumour related to her repute and install her as the May Queen. But, one year, her acolytes despite their frantic forays, failed to find their ideal and decided to crown some suitable boy as the May King instead. A gentle honest boy, utterly aloof and indifferent to the worldly temptations and unrivalled for soulful saintly songs, was proffered the prize. Yet in a stunning twist, their idol suddenly disappeared after a few weeks. The ensuing hunt found him forlorn and penniless outside a tavern in Paris. Comparing and rating the competitors for inner piety, prayers, fasting or chastity, thus, is not merely beyond the human remit and capacity but, at times, could also become manifestly embarrassing and misleading.

The enthusiasts for the Muslim women beauty contests, thus, must stipulate some non- controversial and pragmatically measurable standards. Theoretically, the organisers have a pretty genuine point that feminine beauty is not merely a mesmerising symphony of their stature statistics, attire and skin tones and texture. For similar reasons, the aversion and outrage against such beauty shows by some female activist groups actually have also been quite well known even in the western venues. They have been berated for exploiting the female looks while ignoring their talent, competence, creativity and contribution to human culture, care, comfort and development. The organisers, thus, must strive to fill these voids by remembering that the beauty spectacles are merely a part of the fast racing realm of glamour, showbiz and entertainment. In other domains, the laurels like the Nobel Prize and the global plaudits for peace, science, literature, journalism and myriad other disciplines are already also available to the Muslim women like any other citizen on this planet. Muslims flagellating these beauty contests thus must come up with something more profound, prestigious and pragmatic. Otherwise, they must restrict to their right of peaceful protest against them, avoiding to imitate their parallel versions that are patently ludicrous and repugnant to their own professed faith, passions and prestige.

The writer is an academic and freelance columnist and can be reached at
habibpbu@yahoo.com