Congrats: Nigerian wins World Muslim beauty pageant

A Nigerian woman tearfully prayed and recited Koranic verses as she won a beauty pageant just for Muslim feamales in the Indonesian capital Wednesday, a riposte to the Miss World contest that's sparked hardline anger. The 20 finalists, have been all necessary to wear headscarves, placed on a glittering show for the last of Muslimah World, strolling up and down a catwalk in elaborately embroidered dresses and stilettos.

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But the contestants from six countries were covered from head to foot, and along with beauty these were judged on how well they recited Koranic verses and their views on Islam in the modern world. Following a show before an audience of mainly religious scholars and devout Muslims, a panel of judges picked Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola from Nigeria since the winner. While the event in a Jakarta shopping mall paled compared to Miss World on the resort island of Bali, where scores of contestants are competing, Ajibola was nevertheless overwhelmed.

Upon hearing her name, the 21-year-old knelt down and prayed, then wept as she recited a Koranic verse. She said it was “because of almighty Allah” that she'd won the contest. She received 25 million rupiah ($2,200) and trips to Mecca and India as prizes. Ajibola told AFP before the last that the event “wasn't really about competition. “We're just wanting to show the world that Islam is beautiful,” she said.

 Organisers said the pageant challenged the notion of beauty put forward by the British-run Miss World pageant, and also indicated that opposition to the event could be expressed non-violently. Eka Shanti, who founded the pageant three years ago after losing her job as a TV news anchor for refusing to remove her headscarf, bills the contest as “Islam's reply to Miss World&rdquo ;.“In 2010 we deliberately held our event prior to the Miss World final to exhibit there are alternative role models for Muslim women,” she told AFP. “But it's about a lot more than Miss World.

Muslim women are increasingly in the entertainment industry in a sexually explicit way, and they become role models, which is really a concern.” Hosted by Dewi Sandra, an Indonesian actress and pop star who recently hung up her racy dresses for a headscarf, the pageant featured both Muslim and pop music performances, including one about modesty, a trait the judges sought in the winner. The pageant, which also featured bright Indonesian Islamic designer wear, is really a starkly different means of protesting Miss World compared to approach taken by Islamic radicals.