[R-G] Danish TV Elects Iraqi-born Teenager as Miss Headscarf 2008

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/10/news/Denmark-Headscarf.php>
Danish TV elects Iraqi-born teenager as Miss Headscarf 2008

The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

COPENHAGEN, Denmark: A Danish TV station said Tuesday it has chosen an
Iraqi-born woman as winner of the Miss Headscarf 2008 competition, as
the Nordic country debates Islamic traditions in the aftermath of a
deadly attack on its embassy.

Judges picked 18-year-old Huda Falah from photographs of 46
contestants in an Internet-based pageant organized by public
broadcaster DR1's teenage show. Falah was chosen because the light
blue Islamic headscarf was "a fantastic and shocking color," said Uffe
Buchhardt, one of the judges.

The contest highlights a continuing debate over Islamic traditions in
Denmark, which drew world attention in 2006 when Danish caricatures of
the Prophet Muhammad triggered violent protests in Muslim countries.

A June 2 bombing, claimed by al-Qaida, outside the Danish Embassy in
Pakistan killed six people. An al-Qaida commander said it was carried
out to fulfill the promise of Osama bin Laden to avenge the Feb. 13
reprinting in Danish papers of a cartoon depicting Islam's Prophet
Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

Organizers of the monthlong TV competition said they started it as "an
alternative way of encouraging young people to participate in the
debate, by addressing them on their terms," DR1 said, adding it was a
fashion — not a beauty — contest.

First prize in the contest included an iPod, a headscarf designed by a
Danish fashion boutique and a one-year subscription to the
English-language Muslim Girl Magazine.

Falah, who is studying to become a social worker, moved to Denmark
with her family in 1997. She started wearing a headscarf at age 9.

She said by participating in the contest she hoped to help remove
barriers between young Muslims and Danes "who don't talk easily
because of the image (of Muslims) created by the media."

The contest has sparked little debate in Denmark where the government
has said it will introduce laws to bar judges in court from wearing
religious attire or insignia, including Islamic head scarves,
crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and turbans.

But the Islamic Faith Community, a small Copenhagen-based Muslim
organization, had advised young women not to participate in the
contest.

"The whole point of the headscarf is that it's a symbol of chastity,"
the group's spokeswoman, Bettina Meisner, told The Associated Press.
"We don't wish young women to expose themselves as objects."

-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>