Maria Mahmood
20-year-old, Muslim beauty queen, Maria Mahmood stands out in the competition to become Miss England. Why? Because she wears a hijab.
She came in as a runner up in the Miss Birmingham pageant and has made it through to the semi-finals of the national competition and should she be successful in the next round, Mahmood will then continue to participate in the Miss England finals, with the winner going on to represent the United Kingdom in Miss World.
Maria Mahmood aims to eradicate the negative stereotypes faced by Muslims and wants to ‘represent diversity and multi multi-culturalism’.
A Muslim woman has previously been crowned Miss England, but what makes Maria different is that she will be the first to partake in her hijab and maintain modest dressing standards.
She spoke about the responsibility of being in a national competition and told the Daily Mail, 'I wear a hijab, you are really wearing your Muslim identity. In today's society we are not exactly loved because what is happening in the world.'
Wanting to present herself as a liberated Muslim woman, she spoke about the misconceptions people unfamiliar with modern Islam would have about her modest appearance, 'Everyone sees a woman covered and think I'm oppressed, but am I not free if I choose to cover my skin?'
It was after a friend had sent Maria a link to the application for the Miss Birmingham competition that she had decided to apply, despite feeling that she wouldn’t have much of a chance of being accepted.
She explained that she had told the organisers of the competition that she wasn’t the traditional model size UK8, and would have wardrobe restrictions, only to discover that she would be accepted regardless of her initial apprehensions.
Being in the competition also encouraged Maria to beat the bullies who had tormented her over her appearance as a child, ‘Growing up, I used to get bullied told that I was so ugly I should commit suicide,' she said. 'I wanted to show that it didn't have to be this way.'
The beauty pageant competitor fast tracked her way through to the final where she was up against 30 other women, and won the first runner up prize.
Mahmood spoke about her nerves, 'You know when you're nervous anyway, and then you become even more nervous because you don't see anyone else who looks like you?'
Maria had made it so far in the competition after impressing the judges with her representation of herself and her hopes to eradicate the stereotypical views of Muslim women who wear a hijab in the west.
The beauty queen will now be preparing to head to the semi-finals which will take place in July, and will include a swimwear round, but she remains undecided on her participation in this section of the competition, 'I am pretty sure it is an optional round, if I felt like doing it, I would do it,' she said. 'But I would obviously wear something suitable to me. There is what you call a burkini but I don't know how I feel about that. I make my own clothes so I would probably make something that was appropriate but still swimwear. We'll see.'
