08 November,2011 08:25 AM IST | | Agencies
An orphan who once dreamt of becoming a nun has won this year's Miss World contest.
Miss Venezuelau00a0 Ivian Lunasol Sarcos Colmenares (21) was presented with the crown at Earl's Court in London.
She told the crowd she wanted to use her title to help people.
She said, "Winning means everything to me and I hope to take advantage of being a winner in a productive manner. I'm unbelievably happy to have won and there are some incredible girls. I first and foremost want to help people in need."
She later added, "I would like to help people like me. I am an orphan. I would also like to help the elderly and troubled teenagers. As many people as I can. Unfortunately I lost both my parents at a very young age which led me to study for five years in a nunnery. I spent my five years in there and my dream was to become a nun."
There were 113 contestants in the final.
Outside, up to 200 campaigners brandished placards and shouted slogans, determined to show that they were "still here, still angry".
The Miss World contest has not been broadcast on a major channel in Britain for a decade. But it is watched by more than a billion people worldwide and tickets to the event fetch up to ufffd100 (Rs 7,800).
Feminists chanted outside the exhibition hall, carrying placards with slogans such as "objectification won't achieve world peace".
Sabrina Qureshi, the founder of Million Women Rise, said that, far from harmless fun, beauty pageants were a sign of a society that trivialises women in a way that leads to violence such as the murder of Joanna Yeates.
"We have read that the murderer of Joanna Yeates was using pornography which contained images very similar to how he murdered Joanna," said Qureshi.
"To stop such heinous crimes against women and girls, we need to stop trivialising what may appear to be harmless practices and start joining up the dots of women's treatment, representation and discrimination."
The other beauties
Miss Philippines stood second while Puerto Rico grabbed third position in the 61st Miss World contest. India's Kanishtha Dhankhar failed to make it to the top 20 in the contest.
