I'm not gonna write a striking intro or rhetoric question. Gonna state the incident straightforward and bluntly. But I will include a bit of past that you can easily skip.
History
Beauty pageants have never been much of a craze here, especially because we're a Muslim nation and do not support putting up our women for display. The first time Bangladesh participated in Miss World was in 1994, with very little response from the public and very less women showing interest in participating. The last time Bangladesh took part in Miss World was in 2001, because I was born that year #TMI. There was a contest in 2007 as well, but the winner did not participate in the bigger pageant.
So after a decade, one ice cream company decided to start Miss Bangladesh again, along with many other big private company sponsors (cause they can). FYI, the size of a private company and the amount of corruption in the owner's heart are directly proportional over here, with very few exceptions. #physics
The 2017 Contest
Thanks to social media there was a crazy lot of excitement on the internet and a lot of people watched all the contest rounds in TV and discussed about it on Facebook. I don't have time for TV and I don't even like TV. Alas, if people made such craze about the Google Science Fair only!
The judges did nothing properly. They promoted underserving women to the next rounds and lots of capable women were unjustly disqualified. It would still be acceptable if the judges were stupid and they did poor judgment, but some even PRETENDED to act like jerks and purposely mistreated many young girls just to get more views and popularity.
Worst part is that they could not even act properly. They disqualified this one perfect woman who had nothing wrong with her body because she is 'overweight' on the scale. What the hell? You guys want a 90 pound anorexic at the height of 5'8"? Jeez.
From the first round to the very last, the nation looked up to one contestant: Our very famous Jannatul Sumaiya Heme (pronounced Himi). Recognize her?
Of coooouuurse, why not? She has been growing up winning several competitions including other pageants, and has not only appeared in Bangladeshi films but also in Indian Bengali films! And not to mention, she's adorbs. Seriously most contestants were lame af but she was more than perfect for representing in Miss World this year.
She even ended up in the grand finale with top ten ladies! She totally deserved it. But she did not deserve what happened next...
A Cheap Marketing Strategy
When the main judge of the contest announced that she is the winner, this one ice cream factory worker (I mean sponsor) who sucks at anything but making ice cream suddenly interrupted by coming up in the middle of nowhere announcing that there was a mistake in selecting the winner and it's not Jannatul Sumaiya Heme but rather Jannatul Nayeem Avril, who was also one of the top 10.
His haste and the shock in judges face made only one thing clear: this is all made up and all fake. JS Heme WAS the real winner (judges later confirmed that JN Avril wasn't even top 3). But the ice cream man suddenly wanted to copy last year's Miss Universe incident and didn't miss the golden chance of using her first name and confusing it with another woman's name. Cause controversy=views=money=profit! Easy!
The worst part is, they HUMILIATED an actual beauty with brain and talents without even apologizing to her. Just to get some more money to wipe their filthy asses with, they hulimiated a woman on a live TV show for the entire country to see like she has no dignity. Recently there are speculations that the sponsors had personal problems with JS Heme or her father/uncle which is why they rather did it to put her down and take their 'revenge' on her. (Reason? Wait for Part 2.)
So that's how, Jannatul Nayeem Avril was given the crown!
Yeah there were much controversy and a lot of angry responses on social media. But... hold on! This isn't the end. Drama is a chain reaction and more info is coming up... in my next myTake!
I'm so sorry. I wished to finish this but I have school tomorrow and it's my bed time. Besides, this is getting too long and boring. Stay tuned for my next post to know further about this drama. Have a great day! :)
What Girls Said
Interesting Take, I didn't know Bangladesh had a beauty contest too
It's been a whole decade, no wonder.