Somali beauty contest held in world’s worst place for women

While many in Somalia packed into cafes and homes on Sunday night to watch the Euros soccer final, hundreds of Mogadishu’s most stylish residents gathered at an elite seaside hotel for a different contest: Miss Somalia.

That a car bomb exploded about a kilometre away, outside a top coffee restaurant packed with football fans, highlights the schizophrenic nature of life in Somalia.

Beauty contestants were marching through the hotel when an explosion occurred nearby, killing at least five people and injuring around 20.

Al-Shabaab, the Islamic militant group that has controlled much of Somalia for more than 15 years, said it carried out the attack.

Hani Abdi Gas founded the Miss Somalia pageant in 2021, a brave thing to do in a culturally conservative country where Islamic extremism roams, and which consistently ranks high on lists of the worst places in the world to be a woman.

Gus grew up in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya along with hundreds of thousands of other Somalis who fled war and drought before returning home in 2020.

Although the pageant is a beauty contest, Gass said the idea behind the competition is to elevate women’s voices and bring them out of isolation.

“It promotes unity and empowerment,” she said.

Gass believes it is time for Somalia to join the rest of the world when it comes to beauty pageants: “I want to celebrate the aspirations of women from diverse backgrounds, boost their self-confidence and give them the opportunity to showcase Somali culture to the world.”

This year’s contest certainly saw participation from women from a variety of professions. One participant was a female police officer.

Many in Somalia find the idea of ​​beauty contests abhorrent.

Some see it as an affront to Islam and Somali culture, while others say it’s another form of sexual abuse that objectifies women.

“It disgusts me to think that our young women would take part in this horrific contest,” said clan leader Ahmed Abdi Haraneh.

“Such things go against our culture and religion. If a girl appears on stage wearing tight clothes, it brings shame to her family and clan. Women should stay at home and wear modest clothes.”

Some women are against beauty contests.

“It’s good to support Somali youth, but not in a way that contradicts our religion,” said Sabrina, a student who did not want to give her last name.

“It is not appropriate for a woman to appear in public without covering her neck, yet that is exactly what the Miss Somalia contestants did.”

Unlike the demure-colored robes and veils worn by many Somali women, Miss Somalia contestants wore flashy, form-fitting gowns.

Aisha Ikow, 24, wearing a long gold dress with floor-length sleeves, was crowned Miss Somalia and took home the $1,000 (£770) prize.

She is a university student and make-up artist who represented South-West Region. The other finalists were regional beauty queens from Jubaland in the south and Galmudug in central Somalia.

“I will use this as an opportunity to speak out against early marriage and promote girls’ education,” Ikowu said.

“This pageant celebrates Somali culture and beauty while shaping a brighter future for women.”

The six-judge panel (five women and one man) had a hard time choosing a winner.

The judges included founder Gus, representatives from the Youth Ministry and Miss Somalia 2022. The judges based their judging of the contestants on their physical beauty, catwalk walk, clothing and public speaking.

The public was also invited to vote online.

It costs $1 to vote, and the money raised will help fund events in Mogadishu and international travel to compete in the Miss Africa, Miss World and Miss Universe pageants.

The evening pageant, held at a luxury seaside hotel, was a far cry from the lives of most people in Somalia, especially the women.

Four million Somalis, about a quarter of the population, have been forced to flee their homes and live in other parts of the country.

The United Nations estimates that between 70 and 80 percent of them are women.

In 2024, enough data will be collected for Somalia to be included in the UN Human Development Index for the first time in 30 years, placing it at the bottom of the list.

Somalia ranks fourth from the bottom on the UN’s Gender Inequality Index, with aid groups saying 52% of women there have experienced gender-based violence and around 98% have undergone female genital mutilation.

Traditionally, if a man raped a woman, his “punishment” was to marry her. Attitudes toward rape and other forms of abuse against women have not changed much over the years.

In 2013, a woman in Mogadishu was sentenced to one year in prison after accusing members of the security forces of rape.

In the self-declared republic of Somaliland, religious leaders repealed a 2018 sexual offences law shortly after it was signed into law, a revised version that does not protect women from child and forced marriage, rape and other sexual abuse.

But the fact that the Miss Somalia contest was held in Mogadishu, just one kilometre from the site of the suicide bombing, shows that the country is changing, both in terms of attitudes and security.

A few years ago, especially when Al-Shabaab controlled the capital, a beauty contest would have been unthinkable.

The crowd at the Elite Hotel did not leave until the early hours of the morning, the sounds of the nearby attack drowned out by the sound of Indian Ocean waves lapping on the shore.

Kiin Hassan Faqat is a reporter for Bilan Media, an all-female media outlet in Somalia.

Mary Harper has written two books about Somalia, including Everything You Have Told Me Is True, which describes life under al-Shabaab rule.