Miss Iraq not taking down photo with Miss Israel shows love is more powerful than hate
In the latest on the good, the bad, and the ugly in the world, Miss Iraq 2017 and Miss Israel 2017 posed together on Instagram, for “peace and love”. This was followed by a lot of hate directed at Miss Iraq Sarah Idan, and now her family has been forced to flee the country due to death threats.
Idan had faced threats and backlash over some bikini pictures too.
Iraq doesn’t recognise Israel as a state, and holds Jews responsible for victimising Muslims in and around Palestine.
Many, thus, saw Idan’s action as fraternising with the enemy, and accused her of cosying up to “terrorists and murderers”.
While Idan later apologised to “all those who consider” the November 14 Instagram picture “harmful to the Palestinian cause” and clarified that “Posting this does not mean that I am supporting the Israeli government and does not mean that I accept any of their policies toward the Arab world,” she has bravely refused to take down the picture.
Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman told her country’s Hadashot News channel that “people made threats against her (Idan) and her family that if she didn’t return home and take down the photos, they would remove her title, (and) that they would kill her. Out of fear, they left Iraq at least until the situation calms down.”
Idan herself does not live in Iraq, she moved to the US sometime in the mid-2000s.
Brave move, brave women
Idan represented Iraq in the Miss Universe pageant in 2017 after 45 years.
While many in the country welcomed that fact it was being represented at the international forum again, others, who consider beauty pageants “un-Islamic”, disapproved.
Her relatives had allegedly threatened to kill her family members over her bikini-clad pictures, after which she decided to wear “a one-piece swimsuit on the finale night of Miss Universe 2017 to avoid any kind of controversy or danger to her family’s lives”.
Idan grew up in Baghdad, and at the age of 18, started working with the US military as a linguist. She then moved to the US. At 27, she is a “singer, songwriter and musician”, and in 2016, won the Miss Iraq USA title in Michigan.
Her being crowned Miss Iraq too was not without drama, as the original winner, Vian Sulaimani, was found to be divorced, which is against the rules.
While she did not win the Miss Universe crown, her participation in the event itself, and her decision to make her voice heard even when it goes against the popular, powerful opinion in her country, is an act of bravery.
Why did the image cause offence
Anti-semitism runs deep in the Arab world, and Iraq, like most other West Asian nations, holds Israel responsible for atrocities on Palestine.
Israel was carved out of the erstwhile Ottoman territories as an independent nation in 1948, with the United Nation’s endorsement. However, ever since, it has been locked in a bloody conflict with Palestine, which claims the Jewish nation is illegally occupying its territories.
Over the decades, Israel has grown stronger militarily and technologically, and in the conflicts, the casualties have been overwhelmingly Palestinian.
Some people, thus, saw Idan’s picture with Gandelsman as an endorsement and legitimisation of a force they consider anti-Muslim.
Hate not a solution
Israel and Palestine have failed to resolve their conflict for over seven decades, and the price is being paid in human blood, apart from the tremendous economic losses both countries sustain and the money they spend on their military and intelligence.
The primary reason behind failed talks is the extreme lack of trust between the two parties. While the political peace process, dependent on international forces, will take years to reach a conclusion, people of Israel and the Muslim world must start to see each other as human beings first, residents of enemy countries later.
Idan and Gandelsman’s picture was a positive step in that direction, as both women were wearing their countries’ sashes, establishing them as representatives of the two nations. Hate has kept the two countries in a state of war suffering destruction for decades. As the political leadership fails to arrive at a solution, trust-building measures from citizens assume greater importance for they form the basis of Track 2 diplomacy, which often helps when diplomacy at the highest levels fails.
The beauty queens’ pictures did get a lot of supportive comments, sending out the heartening message that people were ready to move beyond the traditional, bloodthirsty rivalry.
Indeed, as Gandelsman said: “She (Idan) did it so that people can understand that it’s possible to live together. In order for people to see that we can connect, in the end we are both human beings.”
The women’s decision to post the picture, and Idan not taking it down despite threats, also shows that beauty pageants are not frivolous ogle fests, that the platform is being used by women to raise important issues, that glamour is meaningful and powerful.
Beauty queens have the reach and the soft power that politicians and activists often lack. The Idan controversy shows that the initiative for peace can be taken by anyone courageous enough, and the only way to counter hate and ugliness is by broadcasting love, as these two beauty queens did.