****This woman just disgusts me. urgh. **
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Pakistani beauty pageant to go ahead
Toronto Star
The flood in Pakistan will not stop the pageant in Toronto.
An international Pakistani beauty pageant will proceed, swimsuit portion and all, despite three weeks of flooding that has plunged 20 million into chaos in an already fragile country.
Pageant president Sonia Ahmed said the pageant represents hope for the country.
“Right now everyone is down and depressed, and this is a positive thing,” she said.
But not everyone, including a former winner, agrees.
“There should have been an attempt to at least postpone it,” said Naomi Zaman, who won the crown in 2005. “We should focus more instead on raising funds. I’m hoping there will be some type of fundraising going on at the pageant.”
Zaman won’t be attending. She’s recording a song and video, and plans to donate proceeds to a number of “disasters around the world, especially flood victims.”
Yahya Qureshi was visiting his hometown near the Afghanistan border when the “horrendous” flooding began.
“People were drowning leaving their houses,” the Markham man said. “It was quite a panic.”
Qureshi said if people want to have a pageant, they should be sensitive.
“It doesn’t look nice when our own are doing glamorous things, which are not warranted in this situation,” he said. “But if they have made pre-plans, and have their own unfortunate situation that they cannot cancel, that is different.”
And that’s just it, organizers say — it would be impossible to cancel or change the pageant at this point. Seven women of Pakistani origin from Norway, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada are already in Toronto, preparing for the glitzy evening at the Pearson Convention Centre. The winner will represent Pakistan at international pageants.
“People have paycheques depending on this event,” Ahmed said. “My heart goes out to the victims. Every Pakistani has certain ways of dealing with culture and tradition, and my duty is to make sure my country has a positive image through the world.”
Khalid Usman, a member of the Canadian Friends of Pakistan, said organizers should be more considerate.
“They should understand people are suffering, anywhere you are celebrating does not make sense,” he said.
This is not the first time the eight-year-old pageant has been criticized. In the pageant’s early years, conservative members of the Pakistani community complained about the nature of the event, Ahmed said. This year, the pageant falls in the holy month of Ramadan.
Organizers said the show begins after the fast on Friday.
“Religion is not going to stop us,” Ahmed said. “We’re doing it for the Pakistani community.”
Ahmed said she received many applications from women in Pakistan, but there are no contestants from the flood-ravaged country because the visa process is too complicated.
