Miss Afghanistan backlash
Most Daze Reader entries get no comments, but last week's entry with the photo of Miss Afghanistan has received more than 100 so far. Meanwhile, Vida Samadzai's participation in the Miss Earth pageant has angered many in Afghanistan.
"The Supreme Court in its Wednesday session announced that appearing naked in beauty contests is totally un-Islamic, is against Afghan tradition, human honour and dignity," state news agency Bhakter reported.
"Based on the holy religion of Islam any one who attends such contests no matter what religion or country they belong to is condemned to hell," the report added.
The Washington Post ran a story about the controversy last week.
In short order, the minister of women's affairs -- a woman -- denounced Samadzai's actions as "lascivious" and "not representing Afghan women." The Afghan Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying her participation had not been authorized by the Kabul government. And a senior official of the Supreme Court and the Kabul religious scholars' committee condemned her swimsuit appearance as "completely unacceptable and unlawful in Islam."
It was not only knee-jerk prudery that caused such an appalled response, but something more complex. The Afghan government, backed by the Bush administration and the United Nations, has been picking its way through a religious and cultural minefield as it seeks to promote women's rights and other modern, international values without alienating devout Muslims or provoking influential fundamentalist groups.
None of these news stories explain how exactly Samadzai gained her title.
Islam Online reports, "Samadzai, or Miss Afghanistan as she will be known in the competition, has told the BBC Persian service that the Afghan embassy in Washington asked her to represent Afghanistan in the competition. But the embassy categorically denied the statement as groundless."
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