The Miss Somalia organization has officially appointed Khadija Omar as Miss World Somalia 2021 as she will debut for the country at the Miss World pageant. The organization hosted virtual castings and selected candidates through interviews over the past two months and announced Khadija as the new queen on 16th November 2021.
20 year old Khadija Omar, a psychology major, is the first hijabi contestant to represent Somalia at Miss World 2021. Growing up, Khadija lacked media representation of hijab models, leading her to idolize people who looked different from her, but she was inspired after seeing Somali model Halima Arden on the global stage, and the desire to represent black Muslim girls in magazines, television shows, films grew even more, a dream that has eventually came through through the Miss World Somalia platform.
Having grown up as a refugee at the camps, she fully understands that harsh climate conditions in Somalia such as water shortages, drought, locust infestation, floods has internally displaced more than 2.3 Million people with women and children experiencing these effects the most.
On her beauty with a purpose program, Khadija will work with the UNHCR and Somali Youth Action in creating livelihood and climate education programs especially for women and kids, work in relocating vulnerable persons from a flood-prone settlement for internally displaced people, secure sites where the IDPs will be provided with transitional shelter and emergency relief kits as well as fundraising money for them to begin a sustainable life after they are relocated.
Khadija will soon be heading to Puerto Rico to represent the country at Miss World 2021. Miss World 2021 will be the 70th edition of the Miss World pageant to be held on 16th December 2021 at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Miss World 2019 Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica will crown her successor at the end of the event.