Beauty with a Purpose

The Miss World contest has been shifted to London, due to the riots in Nigeria in which more than 200 people were killed. And that was just the fuel added to the fire. The fire began when many contestants refused to participate because of the fatwa against a couple of Nigerian women, charged with adultery. According to sharia (Islamic) law, those found guilty of adultery, must be stoned to death.

Of course, the young girls protested. After all, that's what Miss World is about, isn't it? But this protest sparked off a riot. And the consequences are clear.

As if a bunch of reed-thin girls could sway the rulers of the land.

And, according to me, what the girls were doing by telling the rulers what to do was: interfering in the internal affairs of the state. It may seem to be done in good faith, but why just protest when in that country? After all, the contest is about beauty with a purpose, isn't it? Why not protest against thousands of injustices done to women, day after day, year after year?

Where were these beauties when Bawandari was raped? Where were these beauties when hundreds of thousands of women were beaten up by their husbands for reading the Bible of feminism, The Female Eunuch? Where were these beauties when hundreds of women were lulled into prostution in the pretext of transforming them into beautiful models and actresses? Where was ex-Miss World, Aishwariya Rai's protest, when her boyfriend beat her up?

Next year: The anorexic young ladies will summon a press conference to protest against war. Will George Bush lend them a ear?