Miss Iraq gets ISIS threat

London: The first Miss Iraq since 1972 has reportedly received a threatening phone call from IS — demanding she join their ranks or be kidnapped.

 

Shaymaa Qasim Ab-delrahman, 20, became the first winner of the national beauty pageant in more than 40 years.

 

But according to the Jerusalem Post, which cited Kuwaiti Daily al-Watan, she received a phone call following her win saying she would be kidnapped if she refused to become a member of the militant group.

 

The pageant’s organisers said Miss Abdelrahman was distressed but determined to “continue forward despite any obstacles”.The beauty queen, from Kirkuk in northern Iraq, told NBC News: “I want to prove that the Iraqi woman has her own existence in society, she has her rights like men. I am afraid of nothing, because I am confident what I am doing is not wrong.”

 

The pageant has been fraught with controversy, prompting a backlash from religious hardliners with a number of contestants receiving death threats. A total of 200 contestants were scheduled to take part, but fewer than 10 women participated in the final because of the threats, according to Crave Magazine. Pageant director Ahmed Leith said the pageant was necessary to create a “sense of normalcy”.  “Iraq needed this,” he said.