Natural beauty: camel wins pageant with no surgical help
A CAMEL has been declared the winner of a beauty contest after being X-rayed to prove that it had not been surgically enhanced.
With nearly £10million in prizes at stake, organisers of a Qatar camel beauty contest were keen to avoid scandals that had plagued past events.
“Work was done to combat tampering, which is the use of Botox and fillers and other things,” said Hamad Jaber Alathba, the chief festival organiser.
Mangiah Ghufran, a thoroughbred Arabian camel, took the top prize of one million riyals (£208,500) but only after undergoing a thorough examination. It had been examined by veterinarians and X-rayed before being crowned the overall winner at the inaugural Qatar Camel Festival.
Its owner, Fahed Farj Algufrani, said it had taken “years” to prepare his droopy-lipped, long-lashed and doeeyed dromedary for the competition.
In December, 43 contestants in a high-stakes camel beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia were disqualified because they had had botox injection to enhance their lips and surgical procedures to produce shaplier humps.
With such underhand tactics undermining the purity of past events, “Corruption was fought seriously at the Qatar Camel Festival. We had a professional veterinary staff and advanced equipment and we worked to combat tampering and limit the spread of cosmetic materials,” said Mr Athba.
Judges evaluate “the size and beauty” of the head, the length of the neck and the position of the camel’s hump, said Mr Athba. “The most important points,” he explained.
For black camels the size of its head can be a deal-breaker, but for white camels, consistency of colour counts.
Qatar and its neighbours want to give traditional practices a high profile as they compete with events such as football’s World Cup and Formula One grands prix.
Camels are doted on in the Arabian Peninsula and feature in the Quran.