2024-05-01 00:29:42
The new “Miss Germany”, Apameh Schönauer, 39, an architect of Iranian origin and an activist for integration, is far from the usual stereotypes of the modeling profession. This has earned him a campaign of harassment on social networks. “I find it very sad,” she says in an interview in Berlin with AFP.
“These messages are so superficial that there is nothing to say,” he adds, referring to the multiple mockery and insults about his physique, his age or his origins. Since 2019, the “Miss Germany” competition has changed, a bit like “Miss Universe”, although both events are not related.
Now called the “Miss Germany Award”, the contest gives less importance to the candidates’ measurements, age, weight or hairstyle and more to their personality, values and especially their commitment to social causes. This is how Schönauer was crowned at the end of February.
“I participated in Miss Germany because I wanted to change things. “I have a 2-year-old daughter and I felt like I had to take on responsibilities to be an example for her,” she says. “I have always been motivated by strong Iranian women who take to the streets every day and fight for their freedom. And those reasons are what made me think that I should do something,” she points out.
A wave of protests strongly repressed by the Tehran regime broke out two years ago in Iran after the death in detention of Mahsa Amini, 22, detained for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.
Schönauer, a mother of two, does not intend to be intimidated. “I didn’t imagine that the nomination would cause such a scandal, but that shows that my fight” in favor of equality between men and women and respect for differences “is more important than ever,” says this woman who came to Germany with her parents at the age of six.
Parallel to her work, she is the founder of the Shirzan network, which advocates for women’s rights. The director of the contest, Max Klemmer, expressed his solidarity since the first hate messages appeared. The jury is sure “they have chosen the good person,” he said on his Instagram account.
2024-05-01 00:29:42