The Miss World beauty pageant may be the world’s most watched television spectacle, but this year it will not be seen in part of the country hosting it, Nigeria, an official said.
A government representative said in a weekend radio interview that coverage from the December 7 ceremony will not be re-broadcast in the Muslim-majority northwestern state of Kebbi.
”Kebbi is a Sharia state, we will therefore not be party to anything immoral. The contest is nothing short of immorality,” Abdullahi Zuru said.
”The contest will coincide with the beginning of Ramadan which is holy to Muslims. We cannot promote indecency especially during that period,” he said. Earlier this month Miss World organisers announced the event would be postponed from November 30 to avoid clashing directly with the start of Ramadan.
Many Nigerian Muslims remain opposed to their country hosting the event at all, saying that a public exhibition of young women clad in swimsuits offends their religious traditions. The show is to be filmed in the Nigerian capital Abuja and rebroadcast around the country and the world.
Zuru said that Kebbi television would not take a live feed from Nigeria’s state network NTA on the night in question. It is not known whether other Muslim states will follow suit. In addition to offending some Muslims, the event has also attracted criticism from those who feel it should not be held in a country where women can face the death penalty for having sex outside marriage.
Kebbi is one of 12 northern, mainly Muslim states that has recently reintroduced the Islamic Sharia law code which prescribes stoning for adultery and some sex crimes. Single mother Amina Lawal (30) former lovers Ahmadu Ibrahim (35) and Fatima Usman (32) and rapist Sarimu Mohammed (54) have been sentenced to death by stoning.
They have appealed or plan to appeal their sentences. Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is a Christian, has said his government opposes stoning but he has taken to concrete steps to intervene in the cases. He has however, said he ?hopes? that the sentences will not take place.
Several national beauty queens — including Miss France, Miss Spain, Miss Belgium, Miss New Zealand and Miss Ivory Coast ? have called for a boycott of the ceremony to protest the law. – Sapa-AFP