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One hundred people dead, but still the show goes on

Germaine Greer calls it 'horrifying'. Glenda Jackson say it's 'ludicrous'. But the girls, says Miss World, have had a 'rollicking good time' despite the riots. By Simon O'Hagan

Saturday 23 November 2002 20:00 EST
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Nearly a hundred anxious Miss World contestants were under guard in their hotel in the Nigerian capital of Abuja yesterday as they awaited the flight back to Britain that would mark the end of what turned out to be a disastrous attempt to open up a new frontier for the troubled beauty pageant.

With London now scheduled to host the show on 7 December, feminists and Muslims were forming an unlikely alliance in denouncing the event after it sparked riots in a town some 200 miles from Abuja that left more than 100 people dead. With rioting continuing yesterday, relatives of the contestants expressed their relief that they were being taken out of the country.

The future of the 51-year-old contest was once again in doubt as organisers, led by Julia Morley, widow of the Miss World founder Eric Morley, spent a frantic day trying to fix a London venue for it. "There are three possibilities that we are choosing between," said an organiser, who did not wish to be named. "Mrs Morley has spent all day on the phone arranging things, and we hope to make an announcement on Monday about where it will take place. Everything will definitely go ahead at the same time on the same date, and we will be keeping to the Nigerian theme. It will all be just as it would have been here, only in London."

Patrick Doyle, a Miss World spokesman speaking from Abuja, said the contestants were feeling "unduly guilty" for what happened after a newspaper article said that the prophet Mohamed would have approved of Miss World, and would "probably have chosen a wife" from among the contestants.

In a country of rising religious tension, that was enough to send thousands of Muslims on to the streets where they rioted and fought bloody battles with Christians. Late on Friday night the Miss World organisers decided that the show would be moved "in the best interests of the contestants and of Nigeria". They said they "didn't want people to use Miss World as an excuse to wreak violence on their neighbours". The Nigerian president had been unable to salvage the situation by announcing that Miss World could not be held responsible for the violence.

Miss World was taking place in Nigeria in part because the country's entrant won the title in 2001 but also because the organisers hoped it would help unite a divided country by bringing it some much-needed prestige.

Miss World was said to be the biggest international event staged by Nigeria since it gained independence in 1960, but observers say that it was always likely to be exploited by Muslims seeking to increase their power base.

The sentencing to death by stoning earlier this year of Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who had a baby outside marriage, raised further questions about the suitability of Nigeria as Miss World host, and caused some entrants to boycott the event. But Mrs Morley insisted that Miss World's presence in Nigeria would help Ms Lawal's cause. The sentence is not due to be carried out until 2004, when the baby has been weaned.

Mr Doyle said that Miss World's departure from Nigeria was "very regrettable", but he insisted that until last week's rioting the contestants had been given an enthusiastic response everywhere they went. "They've had a rollicking good time, and the vast majority of Nigerians have been delighted to see them," he said. "The girls are saddened by what's happened. It's a great pity because this would have been a fantastic show in the tropics."

Meanwhile the worst crisis in the history of an event that is no stranger to controversy has brought renewed calls for it to be consigned to history. "I find it horrifying," said the writer Germaine Greer yesterday. Her view was echoed by the Labour MP Glenda Jackson, who described Miss World as "so old-fashioned and ludicrous". The writer Beatrix Campbell said that it shouldn't come to London and that it was a "gross event". The novelist Kathy Lette likened Miss World to "a cargo of nuclear waste which circles the world looking for a safe harbour and is shunned by all".

Reaction from relatives of the contestants yesterday was equally forthright.

The mother of the Scottish entrant in the competition, Josephine Murphy, said her daughter Paula had told her that if she won the title "it would mean nothing to me because it would always be linked to killings and I couldn't handle that". Paula had described the situation as "ridiculous".

The organiser of the annual Miss England contest said that all she wanted was her winner, Daniella Laun, home safe from Nigeria.

"It's very upsetting," said Angie Beasey. "It has been very difficult as we just don't know what's happening."

Germaine Greer, author

"It's ironic that the reason it's failed is because of hardline Muslims who feel so strongly about its depiction of women they have driven it out of the country. One hundred people have been killed; that's the real story. As for it being here, it's not going to be on anyone's calendar. We are lost in a murderous dialectic, between an amoral, post-colonial lifestyle and a militaristic religion... I find the whole thing horrifying."

Beatrix Campbell, author

"I think they're having their comeuppance. The thing has become unstageable here. In moving it to Nigeria they were presuming it was a country where they wouldn't face any political opposition ... It shouldn't come to London. It is a gross event. It's a bit like the Billy Cotton Band Show. It belongs in the era of gas masks and all sorts of cultural assumptions that would no longer enjoy a consensus in our society."

Glenda Jackson, MP and former actress

"I'm not even vaguely interested in Miss World. I don't see the point of it, it's so old-fashioned and ludicrous. What happened in Nigeria is pretty appalling and they should cancel it just because of that, but they won't, of course. By banning it, you give it an importance it no longer possesses, but I would argue that it should be banned because of what happened in Nigeria. It seems to me to be pretty disgusting [that it's still going ahead]."

Kathy Lette, novelist

"The Miss World competition is rather like one of those cargoes of nuclear waste which circle the world looking for a safe harbour and is shunned by all. Much to our shame, the toxic entertainment is now scheduled to dock in London. The contest underlines the fact that women suffer not from racial, but from facial prejudice. We get judged on how we look in a way that men don't."

From dolly-birds to beauty with purpose: 50 years of Miss World

Eric Morley might have had the idea of the beauty pageant in 1951 – as a stunt to promote the Festival of Britain – but it was during the 1960s with his new wife Julia helping to organise it that his global contest soared in popularity, winning television audiences of 27.5 million.

After Morley's sudden death two years ago, Julia, 61, vowed to carry the torch. Now the events in Nigeria must raise serious doubts over the future of a public entertainment long criticised as exploitative if not just outdated.

The "dolly-bird" era in which Miss World had thrived coincided with the rise of feminism. By the early 1970s, the event was on the run; the scenes at the Albert Hall in London when flour bombs landed on stage and the compère, Bob Hope, fled, have passed into Miss World legend.

Years of further decline led to the decision in 1988 to drop the show from the terrestrial TV schedules. The "world's most beautiful women" were consigned to trawling the globe for venues. More controversy arose when the contest pitched up in India, and then South Africa.

In 1998, the fledgling Channel 5 decided Miss World suited its schedules. By then Mrs Morley was promoting the contest away from its cattle market image and towards being a fun and "empowering" contest helping charity. "I'm not being exploited" became every entrant's refrain. Mrs Morley admitted the show had been "unnatural and demeaning to women".

Having redefined Miss World as "beauty with a purpose", Mrs Morley set about putting the struggling organisation back on its feet. She gained a much more prominent role than she had had during the event's heyday when dinner-suited Eric read out the results and she merelychaperoned their charges.

But inevitably, there was controversy. The 1974 Miss World, Helen Morgan from the UK, resigned after it was found she was an unmarried mother. In 1980, Germany's Gabriella Brum stood down for allegedly having made pornographic films.

But those events have paled against what has happened in Nigeria. Now Mrs Morley's hopes of "helping global peace" lie in ruins, and the fate of Miss World itself looks less than healthy.

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