Inside the controversial world of Miss Lebanon Australia pageant
IT WAS rocked by allegations of rigging after Salim Mehajer’s sister took the crown, but it turns out tears and tantrums are nothing new for this beauty pageant.
THE stylist behind one of Australia’s most controversial beauty pageants has lifted the lid on what really goes on backstage, and why Salim Mehajer’s sister deserved her win in 2016.
The Miss Lebanon Australia beauty pageant is a huge, often controversial yearly event, bringing in a handful of beautiful young women to compete for the prestigious crown.
The event kicks off with several months of training on how to walk and talk at a “nondescript community hall in western Sydney”, according to a new SBS documentary titled Lebanese Beauty Queens.
The young women are guided and mentored by a group of experts including stylist Zooka Alameddine, who says the pageant is a big commitment from the young women, especially those from Muslim families.
“Muslim contestants have to deal with the criticism of the Muslim community and what they think,” she told SBS.
“For most girls, they don’t get support, especially due to the fact that they have to wear a swimsuit. That is the greatest burden, as the community is not supportive of girls being half-naked on stage.
“These are the things that go through a young Muslim girl’s mind at every training session. “There is a lot of self-doubt and fear of repercussions, and this can take a toll. You need a lot of strength and family support to go ahead with it.”
The competition — which was taken out by Mary Mehajer, the younger sister of Salim Mehajer, in 2016 — has been marred by controversy over recent years.
At the time of Ms Mehajer’s win, a complaint was submitted to NSW Fair Trading by a rival contestant questioning the circumstances of her triumph.
The complaint questioned how Ms Mehajer could fairly enter when her brother’s business, Mehajer Bros, was a major sponsor of the event. The other part of the complaint looked at why she was allowed to enter just weeks before the event, while other contestants had been in training for months. But, according to the rules, there’s no clause against last-minute entries.
But according to The Daily Telegraph, Ms Alameddine said that Ms Mehajer won the competition fair and square — and it was her lack of Botox and face fillers than earned her the crown.
“We like our pageant contestants to have natural beauty,” she said of previous winners. “[Not] getting fillers and Botox just before pageant night, which results in bruised and swollen lips, or what I like to call the ‘Donald Duck’ look.
“Unfortunately, it has become the norm that when a girl wins the crown, there’s always someone spreading a rumour that they paid their way to get it.
“Just like in sports, when parents yell out at the TV that it’s rigged, or when a person achieves success and people want to undermine their achievement.”
For 16 years, the pageant has attracted the who’s who of Sydney’s Lebanese community, as the daughters of proud families compete to be crowned Miss Lebanon Australia.
The documentary is seen through the eyes of the contestants and the pageant’s “glam squad”, who create the perfect beauty queen over a five-week period. The winner will go on to compete in the prestigious Miss Lebanon Emigrant Beauty Pageant in Beirut, with a history of past queens going on to achieve international stardom in the Middle East.
According to The Telegraph, although there are no physical requirements to enter, Ms Alameddine said overweight women need not apply — and that she had no shame in admitting to making contestant cry in the past.
“My care factor is zero,” she said of upsetting the girls.
“I come from the real world and I don’t butter things up. I tell it how it is — and it isn’t an opinion, it’s fact, so deal with it.
“If she’s really overweight we don’t take her,” she told The Telegraph.
“Lebanese beauty queens have been embedded into us since we were children. We have always been told that Lebanese women are the exotic ones.
“We take a lot of pride in the way we look, and we have big egos and love to show off. We are a community that supports each other but also competes with each other, and what better platform than this?”
Lebanese Beauty Queens airs 8.30pm, Wednesday on SBS.