Boycott fails to stop Miss World
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 Posted: 6:49 AM EST (1149 GMT)
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ABUJA, Nigeria -- Beauty queens from around the world have arrived in Nigeria for the start of the Miss World competition, which had been threatened by a mass boycott over the nation's Islamic stoning sentences.
Nigerian officials celebrated on Monday as they welcomed 82 contestants on their arrival to take part in a number of events before the start of the pageant on December 7.
Contestants from Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama did not show up for the charter flight from London to the Nigerian capital, Abuja, saying they would honour boycott calls.
Miss World organisers could not immediately explain the no-shows, saying only that they hoped the others would arrive before December 7.
"Some people say there is a boycott. Is there a boycott? There isn't one," The Associated Press quoted Ben Murray-Bruce, head of state-run Nigerian Television Authority, the pageant's co-sponsor and official broadcaster, as saying.
"This is the moment the whole world has been waiting for," he told cheering contestants, among them representatives of five countries who had threatened to stay away -- Belgium, Canada, France, Kenya and Norway, Reuters reported.
The contest is being billed by Nigeria's government as the highest-profile international event ever to be staged in the country -- and possibly the most controversial.
The Miss World boycott threats were sparked by Nigerian Islamic courts sentencing four people to death to stoning for extramarital sex and rape, including a 31-year-old mother.
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At least nine nations -- Panama, Costa Rica, Spain, France, Kenya, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland and South Africa -- threatened to boycott the contest to put pressure on Nigeria's government to withdraw the sentences.
Pageant organisers chose replacements for the Belgian and French no-shows. In an apparent turnaround, Kenya's Miss World affiliate sent a contestant on Monday after earlier indicating it would not, AP reported.
Nigerian officials have insisted recently that they will not permit the stoning sentences to be carried out, but refused to intervene directly possibly from fear of alienating Muslim voters ahead of elections next year.
"You have no fears in this country. Your safety is guaranteed. And I assure you, no Nigerian has been stoned or will be stoned," Dubem Onyia, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs told the beauty queens on Monday, AP reported.
The organisers said a total of 92 contestants would eventually take part in the contest. Last year 96 nations were represented.
Nigerian Agbani Derago became the first black African woman to win the pageant in 2001, allowing her country to host this year's event.
Nigeria hopes hosting the event will boost tourism in a country that relies on crude oil exports for more than 90 percent of its foreign income.
At least one of the women condemned to death, Amina Lawal, convicted in March of adultery, has gone into hiding while awaiting a second appeal by a higher Islamic court.
Muslim protests
The pageant has also attracted protests from Nigerian Muslim fundamentalist groups, prompting organisers to delay the contest by more than a week until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
One group told Reuters that the pageant was a "parade of nudity," while officials in four Muslim majority states have forbidden the contest from being broadcast.
Sadiu Aliu, an official of Mahiba, a Nigerian Muslim fundamentalist group in the northern city of Gusau, told AP on Monday his group was planning a month of "black prayers" to spread "plagues of curses and bad luck" on Miss World organisers and participants.
Miss World is highly popular in Asia and parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South America. The contest had gained one first time entrant this year -- Vietnam, whose ruling Communist Party once called beauty contests a sign of capitalist decadence, according to AP.
Greeted by colourful groups of traditional drummers and dancers upon her arrival, Miss World president Julia Morley told AP on Monday "We're so happy to be here. We are here to put Nigeria on the map of international beauty."
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