Page 13 - TORCH Magazine #14 - July 2019

MISS IRAQ
EXILED FOR
STANDING
WITH ISRAEL
I"'m trying to open people's eyes, especially the Arab people."
During the Miss Universe 2017 contest in Los Angeles, Miss Iraq, Sarah
Idan, sparked controversy when she posed for a selfie with Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman.
Sarah posted what she thought was a harmless picture of the two of them on Instagram with the message, “Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel”.
The next morning she woke up to a string of messages from her parents, who were receiving death threats, and from the Iraqi authorities who were threatening to strip her of her Miss Iraq title. They demanded she took down the image, but she refused. When she went to her social media accounts, she saw a flurry of death threats coming from Muslims, but also says she had many more messages of support from people all around the world.
“When I posted the picture I didn’t think for a second there would be blowback,” she told CNN at the time. “I woke up to calls from my family
and the Miss Iraq Organization going insane. The death threats I got online were so scary.”
Her only transgression was to pose for a picture with an Israeli and to promote peace.
The controversy surrounding this incident resulted in Sarah’s family
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