I was heartened to hear the words of Australia's former Gold Coast Islamic Society president this month, a year after the Miss Teen Australia incident. It was a year ago that a Muslim teenager, Ayten Ahmed, generated a wave of controversy by entering the Miss Teen Australia beauty contest. Then aged sixteen, the Melbourne schoolgirl was condemned by Muslim leaders when she entered the competition, with Melbourne cleric, Sheik Mohammed Omran, branding participation by Muslim girls as "a slur on Islam".

In the past the battle between the burkha and the bikini has on the whole been an unnecessary one - one predominated by men arguing over women's rights (or lack of them) - and Mr Abdul's words are refreshingly enlightened this time round.

At the time, Dr Hashim Sulaiman, of the Liverpool Islamic Institute, said: "there is no way a Muslim girl should be playing any part in this competition because it is unlawful. The ladies in that contest are always very scantily-dressed and the only part of the body that should be on display are the face the hands and the feet. I would like this girl to withdraw from the contest immediately."

Miss Mendly let it be known that she'd wear a sarong and a one-piece bathing suit instead of a bikini and then stated, much to her credit, "I wanted to show that there are attractive British Iraqi girls who are proud of being both British and Iraqi". She then continued with her participation in the Miss England competition.

But the biggest clash between beauty pageants and extreme Islam came in November 2002 in Nigeria, where fanatical Muslims went on the rampage. The Miss World pageant was due to have started in Nigeria in November that year, but as this coincided with Ramadan, the event was officially moved to the following month. On the 16th November, journalist Isioma Daniel published an article in the newspaper This Day, suggesting that the sexually incontinent "prophet" of Islam would have loved such a contest. She wrote: "What would Mohammed think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them."

As a result, on November 20th in Kaduna town, the regional offices of This Day were smashed up, and on the following day the fanatics decided to slaughter Christians and commit mayhem. Many Christians were hacked to death by machetes in their own homes, leading to recriminations the following day. The bloodshed was incited by local mosques. The violence spread to Abuja, the federal capital. Three apologies made by the Lagos-based paper This Day were ignored, as was a threat from the Nigerian government to punish those who had engaged in "irresponsible journalism". After three days of bloodshed and violence more than two hundred and fifty were dead in Kaduna town alone. Several churches were destroyed.

Before Isioma Daniel's (admittedly, thoughtless) article had been written, there had already been controversy about Nigeria's holding of the event. The beauty queens from Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama had refused to take part, as newly-implemented Sharia courts in Nigeria had sentenced unmarried women to be stoned to death for getting pregnant. The competition seems unlikely to be held there again.

As a Muslim woman, what always amazes me about beauty pageants is how in countries, like Britain, they are generally looked down upon by women, who see them as regressive and objectivising. Back in 1970, feminist protesters threw flour bombs during the live Miss World event at London's Royal Albert Hall, momentarily scaring the host, Bob Hope - British television now hardly covers what is a very British event. (Admittedly in other countries, notably in Latin American and Scandinavian countries, the pageants are popular and pageant winners treated like heroes).

For Muslim women there is little one can do (save perhaps entering the porn industry) more rebellious than entering a beauty contest - it's a Muslim woman's dream way of liberating herself from male-dominated society. Forget throwing off the veil - this is more a question of having every male in your family after you for your life for threatening family honour. If I'd entered a beauty pageant as a young woman, I'd not be here to tell the tale now.

There is of course the ridiculous alternative to the traditional beauty pageant, which might please both western feminists and extremist Muslim men: the Uzbekistan beauty pageant, where young women model only the traditional Uzbel - a long, colourful dress and silk trousers - and it's their moral values on womanhood and motherhood on which they are judged, not their looks. (Presumably the best liar gets to walk away with the crown, however hideous and repulsive she - or he - may be).

I'm all for traditional western beauty pageants, but then again I'm a secular Muslim. Dare I say it, I am a modern Muslim woman (who occasionally sports a veil) and I must say I like looking at beautiful people, whether male or female.

Seeing my faith's men get all hot under the collar about Muslim women taking part in beauty contests makes me chuckle, but seeing liberated western women complaining that beauty pageants are cruel on women makes me just scratch my head. This is the beauty paradox and it is inconsistent with the clash between bikini and burkha. This is the clash of civilisations so talked about in the press, turned on its head and back again.

Ahdaf Yusuf is a Muslim scholar at the University of London. Her areas of research include Economic History and International Relations.

---

Bookmark with: