Miss Nepal
Standing up for Beauty
The Miss Nepal beauty pageant, which feeds into the international Miss World competition, has been held annually since 1994. Twenty young women from across Nepal participated in training sessions, personality development classes and rehearsals to prepare for the competition.
Female activists from within the Maoist party protested against the contest because they believed it represented Western imperialism, exploited and commodified women, and discriminated against most Nepali women on the basis of the contest's minimum height requirement. Because of the controversy stirred up by activists, some of the contestants received threatening telephone calls and faced a public smear campaign.
After multiple postponements, the organizers scheduled the contest for Saturday, September 27. At around 7 pm on Friday, September 26, the Chief District Officer of the Kathmandu Valley delivered a letter to organizers, telling them he could not guarantee their security if they held the contest. After much debate among organizers, judges, contestants and parents, the contest was canceled.
Female activists from within the Maoist party protested against the contest because they believed it represented Western imperialism, exploited and commodified women, and discriminated against most Nepali women on the basis of the contest's minimum height requirement. Because of the controversy stirred up by activists, some of the contestants received threatening telephone calls and faced a public smear campaign.
After multiple postponements, the organizers scheduled the contest for Saturday, September 27. At around 7 pm on Friday, September 26, the Chief District Officer of the Kathmandu Valley delivered a letter to organizers, telling them he could not guarantee their security if they held the contest. After much debate among organizers, judges, contestants and parents, the contest was canceled.
