YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Backstage in makeup at Miss Muslimah 2014, Miss Iran prefers to demonstrate rather than explain the difference between being beautiful and seductive.
“I mean, I can sit here with a hijab, and suppose you are a guy,” she says, leaning in close and flashing bedroom eyes. “I could sit here like this and say, ‘Hi, how are YOU doing?’”
“Or,” she continues, switching to a curt tone and straight back, “I can say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ You can see the difference.”
Miss Iran, otherwise known as Samaneh Zand, a 25-year-old industrial designer, confesses she is “not the pageant type” but decided to enter the Miss Muslimah competition because it is not about “showing off” or being the sexiest contestant.
Developed by Eka Shanty, a former Indonesian TV presenter who lost her job because she refused to take off her hijab on the air, the pageant’s formal name is the World Muslimah Award. But it’s known informally as the Miss Muslimah, perhaps because it is billed as Islam’s answer to Miss World.
As far as beauty pageants go, Miss Muslimah is uniquely modest, says 26-year-old Miss Singapore, Masturah Binte Jamil.
“In Miss World you have to wear the two-piece and all is exposed,” explains Jamil, who quit her job as a teacher to take part in the competition. “But that is not allowed in our religion, so this is the one and only event for Muslim women.”
Instead of bikini parades and talent quests, Miss Muslimah contestants take part in recitals from the Koran, Islamic shopping challenges and debates about whether nail polish is haram, or forbidden under Islamic law.
Staged in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation since 2011, the event is now attracting an increasingly international lineup. This year participants have flown in from Trinidad, Nigeria, Iran, Tunisia, the U.K. and across Southeast Asia to take part.
Over the course of a 12-day “quarantine period,” the finalists rise early for 5 a.m. makeup sessions and spend long days in three-inch heels as they crunch through a jam-packed schedule, including visits to a slum, an old people’s home and a string of corporate sponsors — all the while being judged on their piety.
On a handful of nights the contestants are also woken up at 2 a.m. for an additional prayer on top of the customary five daily prayers in Islam, often running on just three hours of sleep per day. Miss Iran admits she has hardly had time to think, but the organizers are unapologetic.
“We’re trying to find an excellent personality that can be a role model, an ideal figure to stand on behalf of millions of Muslim women in the world,” says Shanty. “Of course this is very challenging and stressful, but I think it’s worth it for them.”
After no-shows from Miss Palestine, Egypt, Germany and USA due to visa and family reasons, the contest is whittled down to 18 contestants.
One lucky Muslimah (which means Muslim woman in Arabic) will win $10,000 worth of gold dinars, a culinary tour of South Korea, a gold watch and a trip to Mecca.
Initially developed as a showcase for Islamic fashion, Miss Muslimah has since evolved into an event with deeper humanitarian aims.This year the contestants will take part in a new segment, where they will be asked to outline their vision for improving the lives of their Muslim sisters around the globe.
Behind the scenes, Miss Bangladesh, 26-year-old Tasnima Tarannum Karishma, a newly graduated doctor, has emerged as one of the favorites.
Karishma filed her application for the competition at the last minute, in between shifts at her obstetrics ward, because she wants women in Bangladesh to be seen as more than just “reproductive machines.”
The internist says she is appalled that women in Bangladesh lack basic education and health care — and even basic respect from their families when they present in a critical condition.
“Their husbands say, ‘It’s OK, I can get another daughter, another wife, you don’t need to save her,” explains Karishma. “Others leave their wives and daughters-in-law and then we have to manage them.”
Miss India, or Nazreen, a 21-year-old psychology student who provides free lessons for 25 women, also scores high in the altruism sweepstakes. Each weekend Nazreen tutors her students in a range of subjects, including English, Urdu, Hindi, mathematics and drawing.