Women Group Protest Against Coming Miss World Event in Jakarta

The 2013 Miss World pageant is scheduled to hold at the Sentul International Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia on Saturday September 28th..but it won't hold if the Muslim women in the country have their way.

For days now, members of an Islamic group called Hizbut Tahrir have been protesting against the pageant in Jakarta. Yesterday, they converge outside the office of the local organizer of the beauty contest, MNC media group, warning them not to stage the pageant in the city.

Other cities are also holding protests, demanding that the permit to hold Miss World pageant in their country be revoked, saying that the pageant runs against their culture.

MNC Group and Miss World Organization say it's too late to find a new location but promised that contestants would not be allowed to wear bikini at the event.

In Jakarta on Thursday, about 1,000 people protested outside the building housing the local organizer of the contest, chanting “Allah Akbar” or “God is great.” The demonstrators, predominantly women who were clothed so only their faces and hands were visible, also waved banners reading “Reject Miss World” and “Miss World Culture Liberalisation Campaign.”

Protests also were held in the Sumatran cities of Medan and Pekanbaru, and in Makassar in Sulawesi. Protesters gathered at local council buildings and called on the government to revoke the permit for the contest, in case the pressure on the contest itself failed to persuade it to hold the event elsewhere.

But the local organizer, MNC media group, said it was not possible to cancel the contest or move the location, and that the government has pledged to provide security for the event.

“I think there is a misunderstanding,” Hary Tanoesoedibjo, head of MNC, told reporters Wednesday in Bali. “I assure that there will be nothing that runs against our culture. I would not accept if there was a bikini show.”

The chairwoman of the Miss World Organization, Julia Morley, earlier confirmed that none of the contestants would wear a bikini.

The competition will be held partly on Bali, with the final round set for Sept. 28 on the outskirts of Jakarta.

“The contest will not be different from other beauty pageants in Indonesia,” said Budi Rusmanto, an organizer in Jakarta. “The only difference is the participants.”

Rejection of the event has come not only from hard-line groups, but also from the country’s most influential clerics’ group, the Indonesia Ulema Council, whose fatwas, or edicts, are followed by many devoted Muslims.

Last week, the council urged the government to cancel the contest, saying the exposure of skin by women in such a competition violates Islamic teachings, even after organizers agreed to cut the bikini competition and instead outfit contestants in more conservative sarongs.