Miss election in Peru: "2,202 women were murdered"
What a grotesque scene: While models are parading in swimwear on the catwalk, pictures of maltreated, abused and murdered women appear on a giant screen in the background. The live ballad of a Latin American singer? Goose bumps!
Beauty contest with political message
This year's Miss Peru election had absolutely nothing of the feel-good lollipop atmosphere that usually prevails at beauty contests. The organizers have deliberately accepted this in order to point out a problem which is widespread in Latin America: that many women are victims of violence? far more common than men.
Whether rape, domestic violence, abuse in schools and universities, trafficking or murder? All these crimes in Peru must be especially feared by women. To illustrate this, the candidates of the Miss election used the introductory round: instead of their measurements on chest and waist circumference they called numbers from the crime statistics, such as how many women were abused.
Here are some examples:
"My name is Luciana Fernàndez and I stand for Huánuco My measurements are: 13,000 girls in our country are sexually abused."
"I am Almendra Marroquín, I represent Cañete, and my measurements are: more than 25 percent of girls and teens are abused in their schools."
"My name is Romina Lozano and I am working for the province of Callao and my measurements are: By 2014, 3,144 women were victims of human trafficking."
"My name is Camila Canicoba and I stand for Lima, my measurements are: 2,202 women have been murdered in my country according to official figures over the past nine years."
"He who does nothing is guilty"
The organizer and former beauty queen Jessica Newton told buzzfeed that the organizing team designed the event to empower women. "Anyone who does not accuse and does nothing to stop it is an accomplice."
At the end of the event, the participants were allowed to say what they would politically change to combat violence against women.
The winner, who was crowned the new Miss Peru at the end, Romina Lozano, said that she herself had already been the victim of a sexual assault. The 20-year-old now wants to give as Miss Peru all women a voice that can not comment.
