‘Miss Iraq’ Details Hardships After Taking ‘Selfie’ With Israeli

An Iraqi Miss Universe contestant revealed in a CNN interview that she received “scary” death threats and that her family was forced to flee the Arab country when a photo of her with an Israeli competitor went viral. Sarah Idan said she suffered tremendous “blowback” after she posted to Instagram a ‘selfie’ with Israeli beauty queen Adar Gandelsman that was accompanied by a message promoting peace. Idan explained that she was pressured by sponsors, in addition to an unnamed Iraqi ministry, to remove the photo from her account, which she refused to do. Instead, she wrote a second post stressing that the picture was not meant as a show of support for Israeli government policies. In August, Amanda Hanna had her title of Miss Lebanon Emigrant stripped following revelations she had previously made an academic trip to Israel using her Swedish passport. In 2015, Miss Lebanon Sally Greige came under fire and nearly had her title removed after likewise being photographed at the Miss Universe competition with her Israeli counterpart.