The dream went awry for Syamaa Qasim Abdelrahman, aged 20, the first winner of the Miss Iraq beauty pageant since 1972. She has reportedly received threatening phone calls to join their ranks or be kidnapped.
The pageant’s orgnizers say the young woman is distressed and determined to move forward and become an international beauty queen despite the threats.
“I want to prove that the Iraqi woman has her own existence in society, she has her rights like men. I am afraid of nothing, because I am confident what I am doing is not wrong,” she told the NBC, following a pageant full of controversy and a backlash from religious fanatics with a number of contestants receiving death threats.
Though 200 contestants were scheduled to take part, fewer than 10 brave women participated due to the threats, reports Crave magazine.
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