The Kano Hisbah Board, is set to invite the parents of Miss Shatu Garko, winner of the Miss Nigeria beauty pageant over what they termed “illegal in Islam”.
The 18-year old Shatu Garko beat 18 other contestants to win the the 44th edition of the Miss Nigeria pageant held on 17 December, 2021, making her the first hijab-wearing model to be so crowned.
Kano State Hisbah Commander, Sheikh Harun Ibn Sina in an interview with BBC Pidgin Wednesday, which was monitored by Quest Times, faulted the action of the Miss Nigeria claiming “it’s against Sharia law”.
According to him, the reason for inviting Shatu Garko’s parents is to inform them about the Islamic tenets with regards to the participation of their daughter in the beauty contest.
“We (Hisbah) have confirmed that Shatu Garko is a Muslim from Kano State and her parents come from Garko Local Government Area. Kano is a Sharia state and this is why we won’t allow the matter to go like that.
“We will invite the parents to talk to them about the actions of their daughter and the fact that what she did was illegal in Islam in case they don’t know so that she won’t continue on that path and other girls will not copy her,” Ibn Sina told BBC Pidgin.
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The former Islamic teacher backed his argument by quoting some verses from the Holy Qur’an.
“It is forbidden, forbidden for any person to enter any beauty contest. Long time ago, when our great teacher Mustafa Saba’i was asked a question about beauty pageants, he insisted that is forbidden for the following reasons.”
“Many things that happened at the pageant is against the Islamic teachings, for example, there was a lot of body exposure and the events there did not teach ladies to be shy and reserved.”
He also made reference to when Prophet Muhammad was specifically instructed by God to “tell his wives, daughters and other women of faith to cover themselves properly”.
“In another verse in the Quran, God also instructed people to guard their eyes against watching sinful things like exposed body parts and also women not to expose their beauty to the outside world except their face, hands and feet,” he added.
