Hijabi Competes In "Miss Big Arabian Beauty, 2013" Pageant

Lebanon just hosted its first "most beautiful fat woman pageant." Actually, it was a first for the whole Middle East. Fashioned after similar ones in Brazil, Britain and France- in fact, one of the judges was the winner of the French competition- ten Middle Eastern women competed for the title of Miss Big Arabian Beauty, 2013.  Prizes worth over fifty thousand dollars were up for grabs by the mostly Lebanese contestants.

Twenty percent of the vote was based upon their style in casual clothes, 20 percent of the vote was based upon their grace while walking in a swimsuit, 20 percent was based upon their looks in an evening dress and the final 40 percent was based upon the competence of answers they gave when questioned by the judicial panel.

21-year-old Eliana Nehme from Lebanon won.

But what the heck was hijab-clad Noura Zeindine doing in a beauty pageant? If she's religiously conservative enough to wear a hijab, she should have no interest in entering a beauty pageant. Yes, she was covered from head to toe in variations of black, but still. I found that very bizarre.

You can see her towards the back in the picture below (right behind the LBC logo), and you can also watch her dancing towards the back in the video on Al Arabiya.

In case you want to watch the whole programme.