Pakistan’s Debut in the Miss Universe Contest Sparks Outrage

A Pakistani contender for next month’s Miss Universe beauty pageant has ignited a controversy in her traditionally conservative Muslim-majority homeland. Not only is she the first Miss Universe contestant to ever be put forward from Pakistan, she also happens to be Christian and many of her detractors say she will be representing a nation where pageants are rare.

The contestant, Erica Robin, a native of Karachi, was chosen as Miss Universe Pakistan from five finalists in a recent competition held in the South Asian island nation of Maldives.   

Although her victory was hailed by many of the country’s journalists, writers and fashion models, conservative sections of society were outraged. Pakistan is, after all, an Islamic republic that has never put forth a Miss Universe representative throughout the pageant’s 72-year history.

“From [Caretaker] Prime Minister Anwar ul-Haq Kakar to the foreign office to [the] intelligence bureau, Pakistan’s administration is looking into how this disaster unfolded,” according to a September 16 video news report by One India News, a multilingual news portal.  “How can a woman of Pakistan represent the nation at an international stage?”

The annual beauty pageant, scheduled for November in El Salvador, “celebrates all cultures, backgrounds and religions,” according to its parent institution, the Miss Universe Organization.

Mushtaq Ahmed, a senator from Pakistan’s Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party, called Robin’s selection as Miss Universe Pakistan “shameful,” and Premier Kakar ordered an investigation, reports the BBC, adding: “Online chatter amongst Pakistani men in particular has been scathing.” 

“It feels great to represent Pakistan,” Robin told the BBC. “But I don’t understand where the backlash is coming from. I think it is this idea that I would be parading in a swimsuit in a room full of men.”  

“As it usually happens, the Pakistani government proved to be more scared of possible fundamentalist street protests than of international criticism,” wrote Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist, in an October 4 article in Bitter Winter, a magazine on issues affecting religious liberty and human rights.

“Now the model may be prevented from competing in El Salvador,” added Introvigne.

He pointed to a “familiar scheme” often witnessed in Pakistan: “something not to the taste of Islamic radicals happens, they threaten street protests, and the government humors them.”