Sarah Idan, the reigning Miss Iraq, has spoken of how posing with Miss Israel for a selfie during the Miss Universe pageant saw her receiving death threats and forcing her family to flee her home country.
Ms Idan, 27, took a selfie with Israel’s Adar Gandelsman during Miss Universe in Las Vegas, and posted it on her Instagram with a message of ‘peace and love’.
However, the innocent selfie saw the Miss Iraq organisers threaten to take her crown – by order of the government – and her and her family were subjected to death threats.
A picture of Iraq’s Sarah Idan (right) and Israel’s Adar Gandelsman (left), representing their countries at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas in the US
‘When I posted the picture I didn’t think for a second there would be blowback, Ms Idan, originally from Baghdad and now living in the US, told CNN.
‘I woke up to calls from my family and the Miss Iraq Organization going insane. The death threats I got online were so scary,’
‘The director of the Miss Iraq Organization called me and said they’re getting heat from the ministry. He said I have to take the picture down or they will strip me of my title.’
Ms Idan had posed in a bikini as part of the competition, which also caused outrage online.
After putting up an apologetic post the following day, Ms Idan stayed mum to allow her family to flee their home country, and the Miss Iraq Organization removed all photos of her in a bikini from the pageant’s pages.
Speaking to Israeli TV, Ms Gandelsman said they had decided to post the picture to show that ‘it’s possible to live together’.
The picture posted on Instagram by Iraq’s Sarah Idan with Adar Gandelsman of Israel
Ms Idan, who has served with both the US and Iraqi armies, added that they wanted to see ‘between the two religions (Judaism and Islam)’
‘This picture doesn’t mean I support the Israeli government or its polices towards Arab countries. I apologise to everyone who saw it as an insult to the Palestinian cause – this was not its purpose.’
More than 3,600 ‘likes’ greeted their picture, but it also triggered an avalanche of comments, some positive and others negative in a country that does not recognise Israel, with which it is still technically at war.
One online response, from Isra al-Jabri, read: ‘Your peace with Israel, which has burned the Arab world for its own interests, does not honour us…’
‘I respect pacifist Jews who oppose the state of Israel, but we don’t want their peace built on the ruins of our country,’ Jabri added.
However, Samah al-Meshhadani believed that Miss Iraq had ‘made good use of this story’.
‘Maybe she will succeed in improving our relations with Israel so we become friends, who knows?’
Idan, a Muslim, was born and raised in Baghdad. Following the US-led invasion in 2003, she worked with the American military from 2008.
She later moved to the United States and got a degree in Los Angeles.
Gandelsman, 19, also posted a picture with Idan on her own Instagram account.
‘This is Miss Iraq and she’s amazing,’ the Israeli wrote.
In 2014, her country’s Miss Universe contestant provoked uproar by posing with her counterpart from Lebanon, another Arab country with which the Jewish state is still technically at war.