'The Winner Won't Necessarily Be Pretty'

She probably won't be pretty and in all likelihood won't have to worry about any old semi-naked pictures showing up.

I suspect there won't be any questions about gay marriage, either.

'The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants' commitment to Islamic morals... It's an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman's body and looks,' said pageant founder Khadra al-Mubarak.

'The winner won't necessarily be pretty,' she added. 'We care about the beauty of the soul and the morals.'

So after the pageant opens Saturday, the nearly 200 contestants will spend the next 10 weeks attending classes and being quizzed on themes including 'Discovering your inner strength,' 'The making of leaders' and 'Mum, paradise is at your feet'.
The last is a saying attributed to Islam's Prophet Muhammad to underline that respect for parents is among the faith's most important tenets.

Pageant hopefuls will also spend a day at a country house with their mothers, where they will be observed by female judges and graded on how they interact with their mothers, al-Mubarak said.

Since the pageant is not televised and no men are involved, contestants can take off the veils and black figure-hiding abayas they always wear in public.

The Miss Beautiful Morals pageant is the latest example of conservative Muslims co-opting Western-style formats to spread their message in the face of the onslaught of foreign influences flooding the region through the Internet and satellite television.