THE NEED TO REVIEW MUSLIMAH PAGEANT

Salaam All,

A Tsunami of criticisms visited the announcement of the outcome of the World Muslimah pageant. Questions are being asked and I find some of those questions very pertinent. For instance, I looked objectively at the adjective 'beauty' in the Muslimah beauty pageant and concluded that we do not lay emphasis on beauty in Islam. Who is looking at the beauty? Is it their fellow women or it includes men? I know that certainly men were there. Men have always been there.

Should men be looking at our women catwalking and judging whether they are beautiful or not? We all know it is not acceptable in Islam for men to be looking at women. It is an entirely different matter if only women are involved. But the publicity? The pictures? The video clips? Is it women alone who would see them or watch them?

But we cannot condemn the exercise in its entirety. The organizers of this latest contest and some others that have taken place here in Nigeria and beyond deserve our commendation and our empathy. They are Muslims who have passion for promoting Islam from a different angle. Not everything they did is wrong. It is unwise to throw away the baby with the bath-water. It is the 'beauty' in the title that we quarell with and probably the catwalking? That too may be impelling.

What to do? We can start by removing the word 'beauty' from the title. Catwalking may be replaced with walking down the aile using natural gait while reciting the Glorious Qur'an. The panel-beating here is not a straight-jacket one. Other Sunnah-compliant ideas can still be added and I sincerely hope that organizers of future events will be more innovative.

 

Professor Is-haq Akintola, 

Lagos State University,

P.O. Box 10211,

LASU Post Office,

HO 102 101,

Ojo, Lagos,

Nigeria.

Tel. 234-803-346-4974

       234-818-211-9714

Website: www.ishaqakintola.com

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I remain oppressed untill the hungry are fed, the naked clothed,

the sick healed and the homeless sheltered