In Peru, a country seeing a rapid upsurge in cases of violence against women, beauty pageant contestants are apparently required to speak out their body measurements publicly while introducing themselves.
However, as per a Buzzfeed News report, this year’s contestants decided to break tradition and lodged their own kind of protest by reciting devastating facts about gender violence, instead of their bra size.
Here are some of the hard-hitting ones.
“My name is Camila Canicoba and I represent the department of Lima. My measurements are: 2,202 cases of femicide reported in the last nine years in my country.”
“My name is Juana Acevedo and my measurements are: more than 70% of women in our country are victims of street harassment.”
“My name is Luciana Fernández and I represent the city of Huánuco, and my measurements are: 13,000 girls suffer sexual abuse in our country.”
“My name is Melina Machuca, I represent the department of Cajamarca, and my measurements are: more than 80% of women in my city suffer from violence.”
“Almendra Marroquín here. I represent Cañete, and my measurements are: more than 25% of girls and teenagers are abused in their schools.”
“My name is Bélgica Guerra and I represent Chincha. My measurements are: the 65% of university women who are assaulted by their partners.”
“My name is Romina Lozano and I represent the constitutional province of Callao, and my measurements are: 3,114 women victims of trafficking up until 2014.”
Finally, a pageant that uses the platform to raise the right kind of voices. Even the organisers of the pageant posted clippings of murdered and assaulted women and made sure they were on full display as contestants walked down the catwalk.
Turning pageant into a gender violence protest is beyond inspiring.