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The Question of Identity: Ethnicity, Language, Religion, and Gender

Islamic Period:  The Concept of Ethnicity

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Miss Arab World 2007

Miss Arab World 2007

How to assert one’s identity as a cosmopolitan member of the family of modern nations, and, at the same time, claim one’s integrity and faithfulness to national traditions? The dilemma is painfully clear in such modern rituals of national identity as beauty contests. Miss Arab World 2007 was won by Wafaa Ganahi, a 23-year-old teacher in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bahrain, who wore hijab throughout the proceedings. The first Miss Arab World contest was held in the Intercontinental Hotel in Sharm al-Shaikh, Egypt, only a year earlier in 2006. National beauty contests elsewhere in the Middle East have a longer history, though.

Next Button Off Voting day, Kirkuk, Northern Iraq.

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