THE term “beauty pageant” conjures up images of young beauties ‘strutting their stuff' before a panel of judges, a live audience, flashing cameras, and global television viewers. As a just-turned-13 teenager, I remember the flurry of excitement among my friends whenever such a pageant was to be aired. We would all watch with envious wistfulness as each picture-perfect lass got dolled up and presented herself to be judged in several outfits and environs. The next day, in the school bus and before class, we would express our opinions about our favorite contestant, who should have won, who not, and why. It was all very girly and immature, but nevertheless, it was evidence of the fact that every young girl dreams one day to be classified as a ‘beautiful woman.' However, as maturity set in, and the passage of years revealed just how disconcerting, and downright degrading, the presence of lustful male attention or their other obvious overtures can be, my childish adulation of models and beauty queens turned a bit into distasteful wariness. I remember going to Pakistani Itwar bazaar and Jumma bazaar (open-air Sunday and Friday markets) with my mother (our Pakistani readers will get the drift about eve-teasers there) and being extra-conscious of my dupatta doing the needful among the ludicrously lewd stares. I eventually started hating going to the market. I found myself thinking that though being beautiful is great, how could these models and pageant queens handle the unwelcome attention? How could a beautiful girl walk down a catwalk, at times half-nude, to be stared at and “judged” for her body, by half the world? So when Saudi Arabia's unique pageant “Miss Beautiful Morals” hit news stands around the world, I was pleasantly surprised. The best thing about this pageant is that it makes its contestants compete or strive harder to become devout Muslim women. They are encouraged to seek knowledge, improve their character and dealings with people, their own parents in particular, and also their own personality. Physical looks and figure measurements are thankfully ignored during judgment, which is a welcome change in a world that, now, truly dictates women just how much they should weigh and what they should look like, at any stage in life. In the beauty pageants' world of hair-color changes, false lashes, botox, liposuction, tummy-tucks, facelifts and chest-surgeries to get the male vote on who's best based on hip-and-bust measurements, Miss Beautiful Morals offers a breath of fresh air. As a woman who felt distinctly uncomfortable amid stares and other renditions of amorous male attention, and who eventually experienced absolute freedom and liberation by donning the Islamic hijab, I believe this pageant can show to the world what the true merit of a woman should be. Muslim women — the unseen heroines doing a daily jihad in their homes by serving productive husbands, raising pious children and nurturing clean, Islamic, spiritually-charged households that help bring up the next generation of the Ummah's leaders – are not given public recognition or coverage because of their physical anonymity. Putting spotlight on them will inspire the younger lot, non-Muslim women in particular, towards Islam. Of course, such great women remain anonymous and shy away from public recognition because it leads to riya (show-off), and this is correct. But who will inspire others and lead by example if not Muslim women of the world today? So much is misunderstood about them — with the common notion being that they are oppressed — that we need tell non-Muslims the truth: Muslim women are strong, educated and productive. When I was a teen, I read Qur'an, Hadith and a lot of Islamic literature. I was charged and wanted to change my average lifestyle to an Islamic one by following Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Sahabiyyat (female companions of the Prophet) in my actions. But to do that I, as a teenager, desperately needed a living example in a young Muslim woman who could inspire me to take the plunge. She had to be living according to Islam in the current age and, Alhamdulillah, I did find one. The bottom line is youngsters need living role models and women sadly don't have many examples because this requires ‘going public' with your Islamic way of life.
