- Title: Cutting Edge: Beauty Queens And Bloodshed
- Date: 16th October 2003
- Summary: Miss World 2002 hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The venue for the 51st instalment of the glamorous beauty pageant was to be Nigeria, a country where two-thirds of the population live in abject poverty, and half of all people are Muslim, many of them fundamental. The difference between the glamour and sexiness of the competition and the poverty and strict religion of its host nation could hardly have been starker, particularly given that it was to be held during the holy month of Ramadan. Several of the contestants decided to boycott the competition when a Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Others protested when a group of children were sentenced to have their hands amputated for stealing a cow. But the beauty pageant's president, Julia Morley, insisted that the show should go on... Worse was to come. A young journalist, Isioma Daniel, wrote an article suggesting that the Prophet Mohammed may like to take one of the contestants as one of his wives, sparking riots in the Muslim north of the country that left 250 dead and thousands injured. More contestants quit and others feared for their lives when they spotted military police and tanks outside their hotel. Morley relented, switching the contest to London... For the first time, Isioma Daniel tells her story and how she still fears for her life, living under a Fatwa in a secret location far from home. Beauty Queens and Bloodshed gets the inside story from the controversial beauty pageant, featuring never-before-seen behind-the scenes footage shot by the young contestants. The programme also speaks to many of the participants at length about the frightening weeks they spent under extreme security in Nigeria, almost never leaving their hotel, the organisation of the competition, which shocked many of the contestants, and the politics that many people believe rule Miss World. And, in spite of its poverty, Nigeria was prepared to pay five million pounds to host the competition.
- Description:The story of the Miss World fiasco in Nigeria.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Wark Clements and Company Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:16/10/2003
- Rights:UK and Eire
- Decade: 2000s