Israel’s first transgender beauty pageant, won by a Christian Arab on Friday, brought together contestants from the Holy Land’s main faiths in an unconventional show of tolerance and coexistence.
In what organizers described as an ethnic “mosaic”, the 12 vying for the Miss Trans Israel 2016 crown included a Jewish confectioner from an Orthodox Jerusalem family, a Muslim belly-dancer from Tel Aviv and a Christian ballerina from Nazareth.
The Christian, Taleen Abu Hanna, won and will represent Israel at the Miss Trans Star International pageant in Barcelona in September – a role she will evidently relish.
“Our country deserves to come out on top,” Abu Hanna, 21, told journalists. “Our country allowed me, a Christian Arab from Nazareth, to end the war between my soul and my body. So if it made peace for me, our country is only a country of peace.”