Curated By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
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New York City, US/Mexico City, Mexico/Samut Prakan, Thailand
The organisers of the Miss Universe pageant refuted reports of Saudi Arabia’s Rumy al-Qahtani participating in this year’s competition. (Image: Instagram/rumy_alqahtani)
The Miss Universe Organization said the report of Saudi Arabian participation are “false and misleading”.
The Miss Universe Organization, which holds the annual pageant, said reports of Saudi Arabian model and veteran beauty queen Rumy al-Qahtani participating in this year’s competition slated to be held in Mexico September are “false and misleading”, according to a CNN report.
Last month, Rumy al-Qahtani took to Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, among other platforms, to announce that she was “honored” to be competing at the Miss Universe pageant and represent her country in what would be the West Asian nation’s debut appearance at the event.
“No selection process has been conducted in Saudi Arabia, and any such claims are false and misleading. While Saudi Arabia is not yet among those countries fully confirmed (as) participating this year, we are currently undergoing a rigorous vetting process qualifying a potential candidate to be awarded the franchise and assigned national director. Saudi Arabia will not have this opportunity to join our prestigious pageant until this is final and confirmed by our approval committee,” the organisers were quoted as saying by the US broadcaster.
Rumy al-Qahtani previously represented the kingdom in numerous international competitions, including Miss Asia in Malaysia, Miss Arab Peace, and Miss Europe.
Her announcement that she will be representing the kingdom still remains on her social media accounts despite the Miss Universe pageant now challenging its veracity. The report by CNN also highlighted that Al-Qahtani does not address the controversy on her TikTok page in the videos released after the pageant’s statement was released.
“I am honored to participate in the Miss Universe 2024 competition. This marks the first participation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Miss Universe pageant,” the Riyadh-born model and content creator wrote in her post on last month.
“We do not know the reason why Miss Rumy al-Qahtani announced her candidacy, but if she wants to participate in the Saudi Arabia pageant, she will have to go through the same selection process as every other candidate,” a spokesman of the pageant was quoted as saying by the broadcaster.
