Advocacy
projects that winners of high- profile international beauty pageants support
& promote during their year of reign usually focuses on women’s
issues& rights, reproductive health,
cancer& AIDS, education & environment.
But
for Israeli beauty queen Linor Abargil who was crowned the 1998 Miss World in
Seychelles, hers was totally unexpected for it involved a social taboo.
Linor
unwittingly became the poster girl for rape & violence against women
victims when she revealed to stunned authorities and pageant organizers that
she was abducted and raped in Milan, Italy two months before being crowned Miss
World in 1998
On
hindsight, she realized that her participation and eventual victory in Miss
World was meant to be. Aside from helping her to be distracted from the
looming legal battle & the ensuing publicity, her triumph would give her
more leverage in the trial against her attacker.
Unlike
most victims of sexual assault, Abargil refused to keep quiet. She pressed
charges, spoke out publicly and testified at a trial that sent her attacker to
prison for 16 years. Her ordeal inspired other Israeli women to break their own
silence and in the process, she became a national symbol who helped
destigmatize rape in the country.
Now
a globe-trotting victims’ advocate, Linor encourages others to stand against
sexual violence by putting an end to their silence. She travels to speak with
teens in South Africa, where girls are statistically more likely to be raped
than educated.
She
visits U.S. college campuses where women describe a campus culture that fails
to take assaults seriously. From rape crisis centers worldwide, to Hollywood’s
living rooms, Linor is met with emotional support, but the advocacy work causes
her own trauma to resurface.
Today,
the 34-year-old mother of three's crusade against sexual violence is going
global, thanks to an international speaking tour and new documentary,
"Brave Miss World," in which she details her ordeal and speaks to
dozens of other victims, many of whom shared their tales of terror for the
first time.
"There
is something about Linor that gives credibility to rape survivors. They know
that they will be believed, it helps relieve that burden of shame," said
director Cecilia Peck, whose previous work includes "Shut Up and
Sing," a documentary about the US country singers the Dixie Chicks.
Peck,
daughter of legendary actor Gregory Peck, said the film's name was a subtle
allusion to Aldous Huxley's famous novel "Brave New World," in which
the government tried to control even citizens' sex lives.
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| Abargil the model. 2008 (Photo: Anat Mossberg) |
According
to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, America's largest anti-sexual
violence organization, one out of six American women has been the victim of
rape or an attempted rape, with 60 percent of them unreported to police. The
figures are similar in Israel and other Western nations and far higher in the
developing world.
Peck
said the film's website has become a focal point for victims to speak out. More
than 300,000 people already have visited the site, with many writing about the
abuse they experienced. Hundreds of emails arrive each day, she said.
LINOR’S RAPE ORDEAL
Abargil's
own story was just as horrific. She was in Milan, Italy, in October 1998
auditioning for modeling jobs when she asked Uri ShlomoNur, an Egyptian-born
Israeli who ran a travel agency there, to arrange a flight back to Israel.
Nur
told her there were no flights from Milan to Israel and offered to drive her to
Rome where she could catch a plane. During the ride, Nur pulled the car into a
thicket, stabbed her, strangled her and raped her at knifepoint. She managed to
escape and call her mother.
Her
attacker eventually landed in jail & is serving a 16 year prison term
Throughout
the trial, Abargil refused to have her name concealed or her face or voice
distorted in media coverage, insisting that there was no reason to be ashamed.
Miriam
Schler, the director of the Tel Aviv rape crisis center, said Abargil gave rape
a "human face" and her trial spurred a big boost in the number of
women who sought help.
"She
gives women legitimacy to come forward, to say 'I am not crazy, it's not my
fault, if people believe her maybe someone will believe me,'" Schler said.
For victims of sexual assault, the journey toward wholeness never ends; still, Linor Abargil, the BRAVE MISS WORLD, continues her unflinching efforts to keep the nightmares at bay.
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| In 2010, Abargil married manager Oren Halfon |
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