The first Miss Iraq has been crowned since 1972, despite receiving a barrage of death threats, NBC News reported.
"I want to prove that the Iraqi woman has her own existence in society, she has her rights like men," Shaima Qassem Abdulrahman told NBC News. "I am afraid of nothing, because I am confident that what I am doing is not wrong."
Abdulrahman had to convince her parents to let her enter after they initially banned her from participating.
The Miss Iraq pageant received more than 150 applications. It was a chance to “create life in Iraq” and “revive” the country, organizers said.
