PHILIPPINES: 26 YEAR OLD VIDA SAMADZAI BECOMES THE FIRST AFGHAN WOMAN TO COMPETE IN BEAUTY PAGEANT IN 31 YEARS

Record ID: 753703

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: 26 YEAR OLD VIDA SAMADZAI BECOMES THE FIRST AFGHAN WOMAN TO COMPETE IN BEAUTY PAGEANT IN 31 YEARS
  • Date: 9th November 2003
  • Summary: WIDE VIEW OF MAKE-UP ROOM SASH OF MISS AFGHANISTAN MISS AFGHANISTAN WEARING HAIR CURLERS WHILE BEING MADE UP
  • Embargoed: 24th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Entertainment,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA2RSQV419HIYAQ7UONHI01PQQR
  • Story Text: 26-year-old Vida Samadzai is the first Afghan to
    compete in a beauty pageant in 31 years.




    Miss Afghanistan, 26-year-old Vida Samadzai, has
    made headlines for parading in the competition in a bikini,
    representing a conservative Muslim country where most women
    wear head-to-toe Burqas.

    However the media coverage didn't help her get the
    title of Miss Earth which went to Miss Honduras, Dania
    Prince. The first runner up was Miss Brazil, Pricila
    Zandona.

    Organizers of the Miss Earth beauty pageant didn't let
    Vida go home without a prize. They gave her a special award
    called "Beauty for a Cause".

    In her homeland few would know what the title means,
    but Miss Earth organizer Ramon Monzon said Afghans should
    praise Vida instead of condemning her for joining the
    contest.

    "You know parading around in her swimsuit is not the
    main element in the competition. She joined this
    competition because she wanted to be able promote the
    protection of the environment. That is the primary reason
    she joined".

    Vida Samadzai, a dark-eyed girl from a Pakhtoon tribe
    who fled Afghanistan with her family in 1996, stepped out
    in a red bikini at the international beauty pageant in the
    Philippines over the weekend, professing to make the world
    aware of "Afghan women's talent, intelligence and beauty".

    She is the first Afghan woman in 31 years to
    participate in a beauty contest. But she has incurred the
    wrath of the few Afghans who have seen her photographs or
    read the international news stories.

    Women's Affairs Minister Habiba Surabi was quoted as
    saying that what Vida has done "is not freedom but is
    lascivious".

    Under Afghan culture women should not demonstrate
    their worth through their "beauty or bodies" but by their
    skills and knowledge, minister Surabi added.

    The extremist Taliban, whose rule Samadzai escaped in
    1996, forced women to cover themselves from head to toe and
    prohibited them from attending schools, working outside
    their homes or stepping out without a close relative.

    Nearly two years after their regime was toppled,
    competing in a bikini in a beauty contest remains taboo.

    While Samadzai competes with beauty queens from around
    the world, thousands of Afghan women still watch the world
    through the narrow holes of their burqas.

    The first Miss Afghanistan Zohra Daoud, who joined the
    Miss Universe contest in 1972 is now living in the United
    States.

    Vida plans to return to Afghanistan later this month
    to join her fellow activists to work for the recognition of
    women's rights in her country.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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