Pakistan is a country which is both modern and also dominated by the Mullah and the gun.In such a scenario girls from Pakistan have all the aspirations of other "liberated " women. Beauty contests are not allowed in Pakistan. hence the organizers generally hold the contests in Canada or the USA. The Miss Pakistan contests have been held for the last 13 years and girls who win in these pageants generally also represent Pakistan at the various beauty contests in the world.
This year the winner of the Miss Pakistan Earth contest is Ramina Ashfique. She is young and was born in 1997. That makes
her just 19. She is a Sindhi girl and was born in Karachi. She is 5ft 8inch tall with brown eyes. She is the 14th winner of the title which generates tremendous interest in Pakistan as well as India. However hardliners as well as the Pakistan government frown on this contest, which despite all the opposition is extremely popular among Pakistani girls.Pakistan is the obverse of India and both have the same lineage having inherited the culture of secularism from the British Raj. But Pakistan after the death of the great Mohamad Ali Jinnah went off course and ushered in an Islamic regime. Worse General Zia-ul-Haq the Pakistan dictator when he was in power( 1979-89) brought in the Hudood ordinance. This effectively took away many crimes against women
like rape from the purview of the Pakistan Penal Code and replaced it by the Sharia. Women have protested but the Hooded ordinance remains on the statute books.This ordinance has reduced the women status to a second class in Pakistan. The general passed this ordinance to placate the Mullah's in the hope that he would build up support for his regime, but the general was assassinated in 1989. The Hudood ordinance has made the offense of rape impossible to prove for the requirement of having 4 adult witnesses and the fact that a women's evidence is half of a man.
In such an atmosphere all credit to the organizers who have gone ahead to conduct this pageant and it is refreshing that so any Pakistani Muslim girls take part in this contest. Ramina will take part in the upcoming contest in Miss Earth World contest to be held in October 2017. Maybe in case, she wins she could have a shot at Bollywood despite all the noise of the Shiv Sena.
