Myanmar beauty queen dethroned ‘after posting Rohingya video’
YANGON: A Myanmar beauty queen says she was stripped of her pageant title after posting a graphic video accusing Rohingya Muslims of causing communal violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
In a video posted on her Facebook last week, Miss Grand Myanmar Shwe Eain Si accused the Rohingya Muslims of leading a “media campaign” to trick the world into thinking “they are the oppressed”.
Shots of Shwe Eain Si speaking to the camera were interspersed with graphic images.
On Sunday, the firm behind the beauty pageant announced Shwe Eain Si had been stripped of her title for breaching contract rules, in a statement that did not mention the video on Rakhine.
But in a reply posted on Facebook Tuesday Shwe Eain Si said these accusations were “groundless” and linked the move to her comments on the Rohingya.
One of the company’s complaints, the beauty queen wrote, was that she “failed to project a decent image of a pageant contestant”.
“Yes, Shwe Eain Si made a video about the reign of terror brought about by the ARSA militants in Rakhine State, but that was hardly qualified as a failure to project a decent image of a pageant contestant,” her post said.
Miss Universe Myanmar was not immediately available for comment.
It is not the first time Myanmar’s nascent beauty queen scene has been rocked by drama.
Myanmar’s Army is waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya Muslims in the far west, where more than half a million of the Muslim minority have fled across the border to Bangladesh since August 25.
The conflict has curdled religious tensions inside Myanmar, fanning Buddhist nationalism and a hatred against the Rohingya Muslims that has been steeping for years.
Earlier this year a prominent transgender pageant winner was detained after a famous actress sued her for defamation over insults posted on a popular celebrity gossip page.
In 2014 a Myanmar beauty queen was dethroned for alleged dishonesty and bad behaviour, after which she ran off with her crown to South Korea. – AFP
Story first published: 4th October 2017
Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/international/2017/10/myanmar-beauty-queen-dethroned-posting-rohingya-video/