Lahore: "It's just another girl who has dared to bare some skin and has managed to get some prize in a beauty pageant," says lifestyle writer Sadia Shah.
"What's the hype all about?" she asks referring to the media uproar over Mariyah Moten, 23, taking part in the Miss Bikini of the Universe beauty pageant as "official Pakistani" entrant.
"Everyone knows she didn't go there officially, she was not part of the Pakistani beauty industry; rather nobody knows her back home," says Shah.
"If we really do not have anything to do with her winning a prize, why endanger her title as Miss Best in Media?" she adds.
The gutsy Mariyah, who ventured out from the University of Houston in the United States to Beihai, a summer resort in south China to represent Pakistan in the pageant Miss Bikini of the Universe beauty pageant, hails from Karachi and moved to the United States eight years ago.
"I wanted something that would help me represent my culture and community in a positive way," she voices out her rationale behind this adventure.
While Mariyah's plans were to represent her "country" in the beauty pageant for a "good cause" many believe it was a mere stint for personal recognition. "I do not think it is such an issue that we should get worked up about. My friends and I and every other guy I know on earth watches beauty pageants on TV all the time. Even girls watch them. What's wrong really in having a Miss Pakistan finally out there?" says Adnan, 25 a medical student.
While her fellow citizens at home and abroad might have different opinions about her representation, the Musharraf-led Pakistan government whose utter motto and slogan happens to be 'enlightened moderation' has expressed its disapproval of a Pakistani girl "going against the social and cultural values of Pakistan". A cultural ministry spokesman said the government has approached the authorities in Beijing to disown Mariyah as a Pakistani national.
The clergy believes the affair to be outrageous and extremely despicable. "Such girls who do not know the value of their honour are a threat to the honour of our women living in the four walls. This girl has not only invited God's wrath upon herself but has also blemished the honour of Pakistani women who can never think of getting involved in such a shameless event," states a very annoyed youth belonging to the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, sharing the government's stance.
"Although she is no one to decide that she is the representative of Pakistan in a beauty pageant yet the point of relief is that finally someone made it. If the girl is bringing home a trophy and a title and that too without any official help, she deserves cheer," opines top Pakistani model Zainab Qayyum. "We had heard about Anita Ayub, Atiqa Odho and Neelam Noorani planning to become beauty queens but couldn't due to government's restraint," she added.
To most of the youth at home and abroad it is not a big deal and they shrug off the issue. "Look into Pakistani cinema, the models on the ramp, the designers' clothes on display, the western attire of the youth these days it doesn't really matter if a Pakistani girl goes ahead to win a title, the second for her [the first being Miss Charity in July this year], in the name of Pakistan," says Rohail, 33. "But well, yes, it would be much better if the next time someone prettier went up there," a grinning Rohail adds. Ali Azhar, a young banker with a French beard and dons western attire, believes the whole controversy pointless.
"The dilemma of our society is that we have hypocritical approaches for looking at things," says Saboohi Khan, a middle aged educationist residing in Lahore. "No one bothers if Pakistani girls act all-American while living in the US but when it comes to a beauty pageant, bleak minded people ... take measures to talk to the pageant organisers as to how the poor girl got there?"
