Miss Universe Palestine Nadeen Ayoub is here in the Philippines for trainings in pasarela and question-and-answer, under Rodgil Flores of the Kagandahang Flores beauty camp, before flying to Bangkok, Thailand, to compete at the Miss Universe, which will take place on 21 November.
The health instructor and nutrition counsellor is set to make history as the first representative of Palestine to the prestigious beauty pageant, amid the conflict in Gaza. Ayoub actually has already made pageant history when she competed at Miss Earth 2022, where she reached the top five and earned the title of Miss Earth Water.
The 27-year-old Ayoub grew up in the United States and Canada and is now based in the United Arab Emirates, where she established Olive Green Academy in Dubai, said to promote empowerment and sustainable content creation. She said she frequently visits West bank.
She met with the Philippine media last 12 October and gamely answered their questions.
“Well, it’s not my first time to be here in the Philippines, and I know how amazing and professional the training here is for pageantry, for the pasarela, for Q and A. And it’s such a beautiful vibe here. I feel so much positivity, and I think it’s a fantastic place to be before a huge event, a competition like Miss Universe where you really need that positivity to go out there and have that full energy,” she shared.
Here are Ayoub’s responses to some of the questions:
Why is joining a beauty pageant important for you?
“It’s so important that right now it’s a time for Palestinians to join Miss Universe because it’s a platform where we can share our stories with the world beyond the headlines that we see today, beyond the suffering, beyond what we’re used to seeing on the news. And to show the world that Palestinians, especially our women and children, we have dreams and aspirations and we give so much to our communities and we can also give so much to the world, or might I say the universe.”
What qualities or characteristic you have that you can share to the world?
“I would say there are so many characteristics that I can share but I think the compassion that I have and the strength to keep going despite the obstacles, despite the challenges that I may face, I continue to keep going. And I would like to consider this as a type of soft power, you know, and beauty is a soft power to be able to share with the world my story, to share with the universe the stories of children and women in Palestine. That is a truly powerful thing and it’s through beauty, it’s through relating with others, through touching people’s hearts. And I think that is a characteristic that I truly admire about myself and want to share with everyone.”
With the ongoing conflict, what will your message be in the Miss Universe platform?
“I think my point of view here and the voice that I want to share with the world is that Palestinians, especially women and children, and every single innocent Palestinian in Palestine and in the world because 50 percent of Palestinians are in the diaspora, we carry dreams within us and aspirations and we want to live and we have wants and needs and we want to reach our accomplishments just like everyone else in the world.
We want to humanize ourselves in front of the world because there’s so much in the headlines and the suffering which is important to show, it’s extremely important to show that, to show the injustices that are faced by Palestinians. But at the same time, we want to show the world what is our culture and our heritage and the beauty within us. Because beauty, it’s not just our physical appearance. Beauty is in the culture… So my voice on the Miss Universe platform is to speak of the dreams, the aspirations, and the things that we can relate to with the world. For those people who are in the whole universe, not just in Palestine. And so being Palestinian is being someone that is a humanitarian. And there is a quote that says that Palestinians, we teach life, which means that if given the chance, we can show the world how we love to live and how we love to help others as well. And so me being a Miss Universe and winning that title will just give me that opportunity to show the world how much room we have in our hearts.”
How can you as a Miss Universe bridge countries?
“Well, the situation in Palestine is not helping anyone in the world when there are children suffering, innocent people suffering. When one human being is suffering in the world, all of humanity suffers. Our souls are all connected. And so I don’t see that the issues that we’re facing is disconnected from the rest of the world and any country out there. I think that any suffering that happens is actually hurting every single country, including Israel. And so when we’re able to ensure that children can dream, including the children in Gaza and Palestine, and when every single child is able to access medical care and food and water and able to go to school just like every single child out there in the world that can go to school, we’re able to heal a huge part in our society and the world. These issues happen in a lot of areas in the world where children, for example, can’t go to school or they don’t have equal human rights as the rest of the world. And so in Palestine, when we heal this, we are helping heal the whole world. And we don’t want any child to not be able to have equal rights.”