The Miss World Contest is one of the most awaited global events of
the year. It happens to be the oldest surviving major international
beauty pageant. It started off back in 1951, more than 60 years ago!
Each delegate or participant must win her national title or a
specifically designated Miss World national preliminary, to be eligible
for competing in Miss World contest. The annual final event is a month
long and consists of several galas, dinners, balls and many other
activities which ends in a globally telecast final in which the
delegates are narrowed down to between 15 to 20.
This year the spectacular finale of ‘Miss World 2013’ was held in an
Indonesian resort island of Bali. Miss Philippines won this auspicious
title this year and was crowned Miss World 2013. Megan Young, 23, who
looked stunning in a pink fishtail dress, won the 63rd annual beauty pageant contest on 28th September, 2013.
Megan had her eyes filled with tears of joy as she was awarded the
most coveted title of the year. A very emotional Megan announced to the
world that ‘I promise to be the best Miss World ever’
The second runner up in this competition was Miss France (Marine
Lorpheline), followed by Miss Ghana (Carranza Naa Okailey Shooter) in
the third position. Around 127 contestants competed in the finale, but
they were quickly narrowed down to six. In the weeks before the finale,
all the contestants took part in a series of challenging events for
which they were given points. These included a bikini round, which had a
slight change in its format this year. The participants were seen
adoring sarongs instead of usual bikinis to avoid causing offense to the
Muslim majority in Indonesia. All the contestants were photographed in
different Bali locations wearing long sleeved shirts or body covering
shawls so that the Muslim population would not get aggravated.
This year the contest faced a lot of problems due to the protest done
by Muslims in Indonesia who regarded the beauty pageant as unethical
and against their religion. Because of the uproar caused by the Muslims
in Indonesia, the beauty pageant was shifted from the main island of
Java to Bali. Around 600 people gathered in protest in Java around 3
weeks before the event, and the number kept on increasing by the day.
Students came out in Java’s Surabaya City with banners which read “We are ready to die for the Miss World Contest to be scrapped” while
other people bought goats wearing Miss World sashes to ridicule the
event. Many people argued that this event exploited women and was an
export of Western hedonism.
The event happened under tight security as there were almost 700
police officers along with the traditional Balinese security. Because of
the deteriorating conditions, two participants from the initial 129
contestants also withdrew, and the contest was left with 127
contestants.
The air was thick with tension as the protest kept on increasing as
thousands of Muslims protested across Indonesia. The participants and
organizers were finally relieved when the three week contest finally
came to an end this Saturday.
After being unsuccessful in their protest, the Muslim population
gathered for a prayer session in Sentul, just outside the capital
Jakarta, to express their opposition to the pageant.
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