On the eve of 4th April, the title of Flora Bank Miss Universe 2020 was crowned to Tangia Zaman Methila. This announcement was met with huge public backlash and disappointment. The model has been a source of many controversies lately.
A video of the model laughing and admitting to filming a man in a public men’s restroom without his consent has re-surfaced on the internet. The video shows the model and a friend going around the men’s restroom in a mall and filming a man in the toilet stall. Since then, the video has been going viral. The model has issued a public apology and admitted to her act. People all over social media have voiced their disgust against the harassment and kept tagging the Miss Universe Bangladesh’s social media handles to take proper action. But much to their disappointment, the platform not only ignored the accusations but also went onto crown the harasser as the winner of the beauty pageant. This has been a clear representation of many problematic behaviors shown blatantly by different authoritative platforms over the years. A sexual harasser has been chosen to represent our country on a global level. This decision is not only enabling a sexual predator but also giving them a platform. The model was also cast in the role of a Rohingya girl in a Bollywood movie last year.
A different issue also arises from this action. Due to our societal norms and male-dominated social structure, men are expected to be tough and never the victim. Even though ‘woke’ young people are raising their voices but no major backlash or coverage has been done on this case by the mainstream media. It could be because of how ingrained patriarchy is into our system. The ignorance of the harassment and ascent of the harasser as a global representative of our country takes away from male victims as well as female allies. But It has also been great to witness women be at the forefront of this protest and hold the model accountable.
Besides the harassment accusations, the model has been in a lot of controversies.
Many people have claimed that she lied about her age on the show. There are alleged proofs of her claiming to be 27 years old in Miss Supernational 2019, where she withdrew from the contest on account of family emergencies. She also had a good social media following and participated in many fashion shows, tv shows, and billboards, magazine spreads prior to participating in Miss Universe Bangladesh, which had given her an upper hand over her fellow participants.
While holding Tangia Zaman Methila accountable, people seemed to have channeled their frustration through memes. Some of these memes have been taken to a totally different tangent. For an instance, the model’s past relationship with a very famous, now happily married with three kids national hero has been dug out of the grave. Their intimate pictures from 10 years ago have been re-circulating on the internet. The person who has nothing to do with the model’s recent actions is being ridiculed and dragged. While having a good laugh, some people are losing sight of what the actual issue is. People are also mocking the model for her inability to speak fluent English, which is worthy of ridicule but besides the point.
Now that Miss Universe Bangladesh has decided to turn a blind eye to people’s complaints, it may seem like we would be left unheard all over again. But we can still keep on tagging the Miss Universe global platform to bring the issue to their light. We hate to have a predator represent us globally. We can also as a community shun Miss Universe Bangladesh and its credibility after this judgment and avoid the model’s future projects to make a strong stance on the issue.