Inside the beauty pageant in one of the world’s worst places to be a woman

While many people in Somalia squeezed into cafes and homes on Sunday night to watch the Euro football final, hundreds of Mogadishu’s most stylish residents gathered in the beachside Elite Hotel for another competition: Miss Somalia.

The fact that about a kilometre away a car bomb exploded outside the Top Coffee restaurant which was packed with football fans highlights the dramatic contrasts of life in Somalia.

While the beauty show contestants were parading in the hotel, at least five people were killed and about 20 injured in the nearby blast. The militant Islamist group al-Shabab, which has controlled much of Somalia for more than 15 years, said it carried out the attack.

Hani Abdi Gas founded the Miss Somalia competition in 2021, a brave thing to do in a culturally conservative country with problems with Islamist militants. Somalia has regularly topped the list of the world’s worst places to be a woman.

Ms Gas grew up in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, along with hundreds of thousands of other Somalis who fled war and drought. She returned to her homeland in 2020.

Although the pageant is about beauty, Ms Gas said the inspiration behind the competition was to lift up women’s voices and take them out of isolation. “It fosters unity and empowerment,” she said.