"Nigerian woman wins Muslim beauty pageant rival to Miss World"

Contestant of the Muslimah World Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola (L) of Nigeria is crowned by Indonesian Muslimah 2012 in Jakarta on Wednesday

Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola, a 21 year old University of Lagos student, emerges the winner of the third Annual Award of World Muslimah in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. The annual pageant, held exclusively for Muslim women, assessed not only contestants' appearance but also their piety and religious knowledge.

Upon hearing her name, the 21-year-old knelt down and prayed, then wept as she recited a Qur'anic verse.

She said it was “thanks to almighty Allah” that she had won the contest. She received 25 million rupiah ($2,200) and trips to Makkah and India as prizes.

Ajibola said before the finals that the event “was not really about competition.”
“We’re just trying to show the world that Islam is beautiful,” she said.

Organizers said the pageant challenged the idea of beauty put forward by the British-run Miss World pageant, and also showed 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 answer to Miss World.”

“This year we deliberately held our event just before the Miss World final to show that there are alternative role models for Muslim women,” she said.

“But it’s about more than Miss World. Muslim women are increasingly working in the entertainment industry in a sexually explicit way, and they become role models, which is a concern.”

ArabNewsReport.