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Courageous beauty queen: Miss Iraq stands up to ISIS nut’s kidnap threat
News.com.au reports that “the decision was popular with those in attendance, especially in the back rows, where young men with hipster beards and tight blazers had been standing on their chairs shouting her name”.
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In September, organisers of the beauty queen competition faced a backlash from religious hardliners who claimed it was un-Islamic.
Abdelrahman said she was determined “continue forward despite any obstacles”.
Over 150 women applied to the Miss Iraq pageant, which organizers described as an opportunity to “create life in Iraq” and “revive our country” after years of violence and political turmoil.
Senan Kamel, the 2015 pageant’s artistic director, said: “What we’re hoping to accomplish is to make Iraq’s voice heard, show that it is still alive, that its heart is still beating”.
In the week running up to the event, the eight finalists embarked on a string of pre-pageant activities, including the visit of a camp for displaced people in Baghdad.
While beauty pageants have been criticized in the USA for placing too much emphasis on women’s looks, the newly crowed Abdulrahman told NBC she felt the event wasn’t just about judging beauty, but a chance to “to reflect the culture of Iraq”. “I am afraid of nothing, because I am confident that what I am doing is not wrong”.
They plan to kidnap her if she doesn’t join their terror group, but Shayma has refused to oblige to their threats.
Abdulrahman is set to compete in the Miss Universe contest which is scheduled to be held in Thailand in March 2016.
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Iraq only held one pageant as part of Miss Universe – in 1972, when the country was ruled by the predecessor and cousin of Saddam Hussein, President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.