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Clash of cultures over Miss World
ABUJA, Nigeria -- The finals of the annual Miss World contest are being held for the first time in their history in Africa. Nigeria is hosting the event which purports to select the "most beautiful woman in the world" from among its nearly 100 contestants. CNN's Jeff Koinange reports that while individual contestants are receiving a warm welcome in Nigeria, the contest itself has encountered some rough going. The annual pageant, which draws a global TV audience of over two billion viewers is already causing controversy even before it has begun. The timing of the event on December 7, so close to Islam's holiest month, has rubbed some people the wrong way. Aisha Mohammed, of the Federation of Nigerian Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, said: "I'm personally against women showing that they are so beautiful. "It's not an achievement, it's something that God endows on who he wants to so for women to say, 'oh look at me I'm so beautiful,' I think is unimportant." Sheikh Musa Mohammad, of the Abuja National Mosque, said: "To have this kind of gathering where you will have women, unmarried women mingling with unmarried youth or unmarried men is not allowed in Islam either here or anywhere in the world." And then there is the Amina Lawal controversy. She is the unmarried Nigerian woman convicted of having a child out of wedlock and sentenced to death by stoning under the strict form of Islamic law -- Shariah -- practised in a third of Nigeria's 36 states. Several contestants have refused to take part in this year's pageant to show disapproval for the system. We caught up with the woman at the centre of the storm with her 11 month old baby, Wassalli, in a safe house in the nation's capital and asked her what she thinks now that the show is going on. Lawal told CNN: "I know nothing about it. I have no idea what's going on."
Her lawyer, Hauwa Ibrahim, said: "She doesn't know anything about Miss World. She's never heard of it." She may not have heard of the Miss World contest but these contestants have definitely heard of her. Rachel Huljich, Miss New Zealand, said: "I did consider whether or not I would come but in the end I thought it would help Amina more by me coming. "The Nigerian government has gone out of its way to say it won't allow Lawal to be executed. "But this is the same government that approved the application of Shirah Law, and now finds itself caught in the middle of a clash of cultures." Meanwhile, the event organisers are hoping this latest storm clouding the event will blow over as they prepare for the grand finale. Julia Morley, Chairman and CEO of the Miss World organisation, said: "Nigeria has made a big, warm welcome to us and both Muslims and Christians have been lovely to us and we should look to that as being a positive step. "The good news that Amina is going to be okay is another reason why we celebrate." The fact is that long after the pageant is over, Sharia will no doubt continue to dominate headlines here and around the world. One thing is clear -- a lone woman from a remote village in the middle of nowhere has succeeded in bringing the condition of Muslim women worldwide to the front pages, something many here would have simply preferred to sweep under the rug.
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