What if they held a beauty pageant and nobody came? That is the question organizers of Miss World, scheduled for November, are wondering as several contestants have announced they will boycott the contest due to the death sentences passed on women by host country Nigeria.

Contestants from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Kenya and Ivory Coast have already announced they will not show up at the event. Contestants from Canada, Italy and Sweden have said they will show up for the contest, but will highlight the plight of women who suffer under Islamic sharia law in parts of the country.

Nigeria is divided with Muslims in the North and Christians in the South. Most of the Muslim states have made Islamic law the official state law. As a result a number of young women have been sentenced to death for being pregnant outside of wedlock.

The death sentence imposed on Amina Lawal Kurami has garnered international attention to Nigeria. Kurami was found guilty of adultery after becoming pregnant outside of wedlock. She has been sentenced to being buried up to her neck and then stoned to death, although her sentence has been deferred until 2004 when her child will presumably be weaned.

Nigeria’s president and much of the national state apparatus opposes these sort of sentences and the validity of sharia law has been a hotly contested issue that pits the national government against states. In some cases, Muslim/Christian tensions have boiled over into riots and wholesale murder of one side or the other.

Ironically, the boycott by Miss World contestants would likely be welcome by many Nigerian Muslims. The Miss World contest was brought to Nigeria and endorsed largely by Christian government officials, including Nigeria’s president, and has been vehemently opposed by Muslim groups and parties which claim the pageant is an affront to decency and morality.

Sources:

Group Wants Miss World Beauty Pageant Cancelled. This Day (Lagos), August 22, 2002.

Miss Canada won’t boycott Nigeria pageant. Patrick Brethour, Reuters, October 15, 2002.

The Boycotting Miss World by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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