Shatu Garko: ‘Miss Nigeria is like BBNaija’ — MURIC backs Hisbah

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has backed the decision of the Kano state Hisbah board to interrogate the parents of Shatu Garko, the winner of 2021 Miss Nigeria, over her participation in the contest.

Garko, who is from Kano, recently became the first hijab-wearing contestant to clinch the much-coveted crown since the pageant debuted in 1957.

But Haruna Ibn-Sina, Kano Hisbah board commandant, had condemned Garko’s participation in the beauty pageant, saying it’s against “Islamic tenets”.

He added that the beauty queen’s parents will be invited by the board for interrogation.

Speaking with The Punch on Wednesday, Ishaq Akintola, MURIC director, said it’s still a sin for Garko, even though in hijab, to have “done the cat walking with thousands of men eating her up with their eyes.”

The director of the Islamic rights advocacy group also likened the Miss Nigeria pageant to the Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) reality show.

“It is very good. Why do you think Nigeria is in trouble and our youths are uncontrollable? It is because parental guidance and values are missing at home. How did the parents allow her to go to the contest? Though she may be 18-year-old, once you are still under your parents, you are under your parents in Islam,” Akintola said.

“Women should cover themselves and dress up decently and neither should display their body for the public. Being present in a beauty pageant even if she was in a hijab, she had done the cat walked with thousands of men eating her up with their eyes. It is not acceptable.

“In a beauty pageant, women also parade their bodies in stages, they come in bikinis and all of that. It is not an exercise a Muslim lady should participate in, people who are decent, who have shame, who have honour, who would not display their nudity, who would not expose their bums for millions of naira should not participate in such pageants.

“We are not quite impressed by the development because the environment itself is un-Islamic – women parading their bodies and all of that. Hers may be different but she is not supposed to mix with those kinds of people. It is like going for BBNaija and using Hijab or dressing like a Muslim but you participated in BBNaija where people make love before the camera and millions of Nigerians are watching.”

Akintola had earlier discouraged parents from allowing their children to participate in the BBNaija show.