My Views on News

After attending three Miss Egypt competitions, I have to admit this year's was the worst. Not to say that the past competitions have been good in any way, since whatever beauty there might have been was not complemented by brains. However this year's result was simply shocking, disappointing and irritating.

I am not even criticising the wits or the looks, but the fact that Miss Egypt 2007 did not speak Arabic. Probably half Egyptian or too long abroad, the winner, Ehsan Hatem, answered the questions posed to her in English.

Supposedly representing 76 million Egyptians, the new Miss Egypt cannot address her people in their own language. How did the organisers of the event fail to notice when she applied, when they interviewed her -- presumably in Arabic -- that she cannot speak the language of Egypt? How did the judges manage to give her the highest score when, again, she only spoke one Arabic word and switched to English because she couldn't answer fluently in her native language?

Year after year, one expects the competition to make some attempt to be more Egyptian in character, but the fact is that every year something happens that makes it more of a farce. This year's hosts, actor Tamer Hagras and TV presenter Mariam Amin, managed to kill any hope of change for the better. Hagras, in his first time as host, managed to embarrass his co- hostess, annoy the contestants and made sure I would never consider watching any of his movies again, because I will always remember his first and hopefully last night as a TV presenter. As for the question posed to the final five contestants, it was the favourite question delivered at many previous competitions: "If you were to choose a prominent woman in history to bring back to life, who would she be?" and as usual Hoda Shaarawi [the pioneer Egyptian feminist, who in 1923 founded the Egyptian Feminist Union] was the answer of two contestants. Not surprising, as Shaarawi is one of Egypt's great 20th century women and her name is known by all, but how many people know what she actually did?

While attending rehearsals at one of the previous competitions, I heard contestants saying that Shaarawi was the perfect answer when they discussed expected questions. Since this year's winner's Arabic is almost non-existent, it appeared that she also has no recollection of prominent Egyptian or Arabic female figures. She chose Princess Diana. With all due respect to Lady Di, her charisma and her charity work, and also to the contestant's personal opinion, Egypt's 7,000 years of history includes many glorious women to choose from. Amazingly other contestants managed to know other female figures -- Mother Teresa and Queen Cleopatra, and had actual reasons for choosing them. To speak their mind on various themes, the contestants drew a topic out of a bowl, and had 30 seconds each to comment on love, success, family, the death sentence and racism. If they exceeded their 30-second limit, Hagras would threaten to either electrocute or stab them with a dagger. That was probably not the real reason for the shaky answers, since although in previous competitions no threats of capital punishment were wielded as a retribution for hesitation, the answers came out just as pathetic.

Since this competition is organised by a private company, and is sponsored and aired by a music satellite channel, as long as it's profitable, we will have to put up with it. Every year, friends and colleagues say: "There are many beautiful and smart girls in Egypt, so why don't they compete for the title?" The answer is clear, and it is not just about girls not wanting to parade on television in skimpy swimsuits. After watching the competition, any girl with an IQ over 50 would think twice about participating. Meanwhile, I hope the organisers will secure a good translator to accompany Miss Egypt 2007 in her publicity work, or better yet -- enroll her in an Arabic class.