Some will see it as the mark of a liberation of women’s bodies, others as proof of its alienation from retrograde canons. The Miss Universe committee “is currently conducting a rigorous process of selecting a potential candidate for the franchise in Saudi Arabia,” Maria Jose Unda, international relations coordinator for the organization, owned by the Thai group JKN Global, told AFP. Group.
A decision is expected “very, very soon”, and it is “possible” that the Gulf monarchy will have a delegate to the next edition of the competition, scheduled for September in Mexico, she added.
The participation of Saudi Arabia, an ultraconservative Muslim country, particularly with regard to women, in this international beauty contest, if it is confirmed, would be part of the kingdom’s desire to soften its image. The world’s largest oil exporter has long been associated with the repression of women due to the very strict rules imposed on them.
Despite progress, women’s rights lower than those of men
Cradle of Wahhabism, a puritan interpretation of Islam, Saudi Arabia has launched societal reforms in recent years, under the young crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, easing restrictions imposed on women and opening its economy to entertainment, in the almost avowed aim of attracting tourists and investors. Women gained the right to study, have a passport, travel and work without the permission of a male guardian, and even to drive a car alone but the Personal Status Law , which entered into force in 2022, still includes discriminatory provisions against them, in particular the fact that only men can request divorce and hold, even separated, superior parental authority over the children.
At the end of March, Rumy al-Qahtani, a model from Riyadh, created a buzz on social networks by announcing to her hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Instagram that she was “honored” to have been chosen to represent the kingdom at Miss Universe. Less than a week later, Miss Universe called the message “false and misleading” and claimed that no selection process had yet been conducted in the country.
In her house in Riyadh, where she lives with her mother and sister, Rumy al-Qahtani maintains that she was approached by the organizers of the competition. “The Miss Universe committee contacted me to represent Saudi Arabia (…). We are still negotiating, and I hope it will lead to a happy ending,” she said in an interview with AFP.
The Miss Universe procedure, however, provides for a competition to be organized in Saudi Arabia by the national representative to designate the one who will go to Mexico to represent the kingdom. “We don’t know why (Qahtani) announced her candidacy, but if she wants to participate in the competition in Saudi Arabia, she will have to go through the same selection process as all the other candidates,” Maria Jose Unda said.
France already knows its future representative in the election which will take place at the end of September in Mexico, in the person of Indira Ampiot, Miss France 2023. She takes over from Diane Leyre, Miss France 2022, who did not manage to qualify within the Top 20.
