Miss World criticised for selecting Dubai as 2023 pageant host
The Miss World pageant, the oldest beauty contest in the world, will be held in Dubai this year, according to organisers. The move is...
The Miss World pageant, the oldest beauty contest in the world, will be held in Dubai this year, according to organisers. The move is expected to ignite considerable criticism, given that the UAE trails most of the world in all metrics that measure gender equality and women’s rights.
Radha Stirling, founder and CEO of Detained in Dubai, expressed dual concerns about the planned event, the date for which has not yet been determined; “Of course we are troubled by the choice of the UAE for the Miss World pageant, just as we are troubled by any major event, celebrity, concert, or festival choosing to normalise and reward the Emirates by their presence. Such patronage deflects from the serious and systematic human rights violations and abuses that characterise the UAE justice system. Giving the Emirates these sorts of international events and endorsements plays into Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s marketing and propaganda campaign to misrepresent the UAE as a modern, progressive, and tolerant country while it actually remains rigid, autocratic, and in many ways, quite brutal. This makes the Miss World pageant, and any other such event, complicit in whitewashing the UAE’s abuses. But in addition, we find it disturbingly ironic that the pageant, whose slogan has long been ‘beauty with a higher purpose’, should opt to hold the event in a country that is so drastically repressive and disenfranchising towards women.