THE EDITOR, Sir:
I STRONGLY urge Jamaica to withdraw Danielle Ohayon from the "Miss World" pageant to be held in Nigeria. I am aware that she is our best candidate since Christine Straw in 1998, but we have to stand up for equal rights.
I am sure Jamaicans are aware of the Amina Lawal case, a Nigerian woman who will be stoned to death for having a child out of wedlock. From what I was taught in Jamaica, I believe in the strict equality of the sexes, and making Ohayon remain in Nigeria is nothing more than a blight on our culture and our values.
The "Miss World" pageant was plunged in a fresh controversy when it was revealed that 11 children, one as young as 13 years old, will have their arms amputated for petty theft - crimes as petty as stealing a shirt from a clothes line. Although the Nigerian federal government has said that the sentences will not be carried out, there is so sign that the pledge will be honoured.
I applaud the contestants from Austria, Spain, South Africa, Iceland, Switzerland, Denmark, Costa Rica, Mauritius, Tahiti and Panama for standing up for what is right... and I urge Jamaicans to demand that Danielle not wear our country's good name in supporting this pageant.
I am, etc.,CLYDE PURCELL: clydesthpurcelljr@hotmail.com
Via Go-Jamaica
