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Australia’s Newest Miss World Is A Muslim And Former Refugee Who Has A Message For The Country
7-26-2017
A Muslim woman and former Bosnian refugee has just been crowned Miss World Australia, and says she wants to use the platform to help people see Islam as a religion of “peace and inclusion”.
Esma Voloder, 25, works in psychology as a criminal profiler, and sees both her day job and the Miss World Australia platform as ways to “bridge the gap” of empathy and understanding between different people.
Voloder told The Morning Show that being born in a refugee camp and learning from her parents’ experience as refugees has shaped her by helping her “exercise my gratefulness for the fact that I have this opportunity that they didn’t.”
“I want [Australians] to know we’re just people,” she said of being a former refugee. “We’re people from around the world, and obviously there has to be quite a strong reason for people to need to leave their country.”
Regarding her faith, she emphasized the way that Islam is a nuanced and diverse faith that is practised differently by different people. “A lot of things have been misconstrued about Islam,” she told The Daily Mail. “‘I feel that a category has been created that is not really what the Quran actually promotes. I believe Islam is about peace, unity, prosperity and inclusion.”
The Miss World pageant centres around the theme of “beauty with a purpose”, and includes volunteering, interview and talent-based components as well as traditional beauty pageantry. As part of this year’s competition, Voloder drew anime commissions to raise money for children’s charity Variety. She also works in anti-bullying advocacy as a representative for Bully Zero Australia.
In Her Instagram account she posted
As part of my @missworldaustralia charity fundraising for 2017, I will be commisioning my anime pieces for @varietyaustralia (perforated edges not included ) I am not a professional artist - but Anime had always been close to my heart and helped form a beautiful childhood , therefore would love to use my passion to help make other childhoods beautiful for the kids at Variety The Children's Charity. If you have a favourite character you would like drawn or would like to see yourself as an anime figure , I will be drawing one for you in exchange for a donation to the kids at Variety.
As Miss World Australia, Voloder will travel to China later this year to compete for the world title.
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