The 70th edition of Miss World pageant, Miss World 2021, is set to be held on 16th December 2021 at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico where Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica will crown her successor at the end of the event finale. There was no pageant held in 2020 due to the rampant spread of Covid-19 across the world.
While almost all the delegates have finally arrived in the host country and have begun with the registration process for the competition, the Miss World organization has officially drawn groups for the Head to Head challenge of the 70th edition of the pageant.
The organization has recently begun with the group interviews for the challenge and the first interview that has been uploaded by the organization is of Group 15 including Iraq, Somalia, Nicaragua, Armenia, China, Guinea Bissau.
The round was hosted by Miss World 2019 Toni Ann Singh and Miss World 2015 Stephanie Del Valle. The stunning hosts introduced the challenge as they introduced the contestants, shared their presentation videos and asked questions and finally the contestants were asked questions at the end of the round.
As the divas introduced themselves and took the audience through their beautiful countries, sharing about their cultures, people and beliefs. They also shared their passions and Beauty with a Purpose projects. Towards the end of the round, the six divas were all randomly questioned by the hosts.
Beginning with Iraq, Maria Makhho was asked, “What’s your motto and why?” She shared, “The first one is be yourself and the second one is that there is time for everything.” Moving on Somalia’s question was, “If you were granted one wish, what would you wish for?” Khadija Omar confidently answered, “If I was granted one wish, I would wish to end discrimination because growing up myself I faced a lot of it not just because I was black, but also because I was a muslim hijabi woman and I wish I could end this and by doing that I want to make, even just one girl feel confident in herself that even if you’re different you are beautiful because I believe that we can change the world one person at a time.”
Next up, Nicaragua’s Sheynnis Palacios was asked about the biggest challenge that young girls face today. She answered, “The biggest challenge young women currently face is inequality. Although we have worked on it, salary inequality still exists. For example, many of the women in many regions do not have the same salaries as men because sexism continues to exist. It is something that has been worked out in my country. For example, it is a big challenge as a woman with a degree, can’t get a job and be paid the same as a man. This is because the man is seen as the head of the family, but they do not realize that today women can perform well in different areas, we can be great entrepreneurs, constructors as well as being incredible mothers. It’s something that’s fought for evrey day and I hope and trust that I can end.”
Mirna Bzdigian of Armenia was asked, “In your opinion, what are the true characteristics of a good friend?” “Aside from sharing happiness, having kindness and warmth in one’s personality, I think the most important characteristic a person should possess is being honest, having an authentic personality is the most important thing. We live in a world where jealousy is controlling everything and being authentic and yourself and honest with the person in front of you, you can have the chance to share the happy and the sad moments at the same time. So I really much appreciate the authentic people, which I have witness here in the competition among the sisters.”
China’s Jiang Siqi was up next in line as she was asked, “What is the proudest moment in your life?” She beautifully answered, “The proudest moment in my life was when I did my charity in my own company as well as my beauty with purpose project, to save the intangible cultural heritage. It is to promote the heritage on social media platforms and I am proud when each inheritor received more followers, which meant that their culture can be viewed, loved and inherited in the future.”
Lastly, the round concluded with the question to Guinea Bissau who was asked about what can her greatest contribution for the world be, to which Itchacenia Da Costa responded, “Our true selves is the greatest contribution for the world. As soon as we embrace our true selves, we believe in ourselves and our ability to do something and out persistence to do that we will do s much in the world so accepting my difference and embracing it allowed me to be where I am today, so I think the greatest thing that anyone could provide to the world is their true self because when you are true to yourself, it means you have something unique to offer to the world.”
The divas from all over the world will move forward in the 15 groups drawn by the organization, where each group will have a winner and then two by two winners will compete with one another until one ultimate winner is determined through voting on the Miss World website, who will then get an automatic spot in the top for the final night. In this challenge, each of the ladies are being given the chance to speak about their passions and Beauty with a Purpose projects.