Video: "Survivors, Not Victims": Beauty Contest for Women Affected by Old Landmines
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
This beauty pageant is not like "Miss World" or "Miss Europe," in the Cambodian pageant Miss landmine only girls and women who accidentally become victims of exploded mines are involved. However, the contestants argue that it is wrong to call them victims, one should say “survivors” - because despite the injuries, they still live and enjoy life.
Cambodia is considered one of the most "mined" countries in the world. According to various sources, there are still from three to six million (!) Active mines on its territory. Every year hundreds and thousands of local residents lose their limbs because of such "gifts of war." Since 1979, more than 57,000 Cambodians have suffered in this way. The country has gone through three decades of war and civil conflict, mines have accumulated almost in layers - not only new types of mines are still exploding, but also very old ones, which are more than 40 years old.
The Miss Landmine contest was organized by the Norwegian Morten Traavik, and the winners received new high-quality prostheses as prizes. The Cambodian government refused Traavik to hold this competition, explaining that such competitions "insult the dignity of disabled people." In the opinion of the organizer, this competition, on the contrary, is intended to exalt the beauty of a woman, despite her injuries, and also to draw public attention to the problem of mines in the country. As a result, the competition was held on the Internet.
The motto of the Miss Landmine contest is "Everyone has the right to be beautiful!" And therefore, women of a fairly large age range (from 18 to 48 years old) and of any social status could participate in the competition. The main thing is to exalt female beauty, to show that beauty cannot be destroyed either by war or by the public's attitude to physical injuries.
Modern Cambodia honors feminine beauty as much as it did many years ago. The most beautiful Cambodian women can be honored to become dancers-apsaras … Such girls, according to legend, are so beautiful that they are considered demigoddesses.
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