Two former U.S. pageant contestants staged a protest against high-end fashion brands owned by “human rights abuser” Qatar, which hasn’t helped in the efforts to free the remaining Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Miss Tennessee 2020 Justice Enlow and Miss Mississippi 2015 Hannah Roberts, protested in front of stores by Valentino and Balmain, which are both owned by the Qatar-based investment group ‘Mayhoola For Investments.’
“It’s Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day is coming up and we are here to advocate for women,” Roberts said.
Mayhoola is controlled by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of the current Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who is seen as widely influential in the emirate.
“We’re here to make a statement that if you are supporting brands that are also supporting the oppression of women, and not just the oppression of women, but extreme acts of violence against them – that you are a part of the problem,” Enlow said.
“So we have to make a statement and demand that the hostages are released. The fate of these women are in your hands,” she added.
Qatar has been financing the Hamas regime with an estimated $1.8 billion since 2007, and Hamas’ senior leadership and political bureau (Politburo) have been residing in Qatar’s capital Doha since 2012.
To represent the dozens of women who are still being held captive in Gaza, Enlow and Roberts, wore makeup to simulate bruises on their faces and were tied and led around on a rope by an actress portraying Sheikha Moza.
Their protest is the latest initiative in a campaign highlighting Qatar’s role in the hostage negotiations.
“We know that if Qatar wanted the hostages released tomorrow – they would be released,” said Enlow.
Several Christian leaders of large organizations and ministries joined the campaign, including Kathie Lee Gifford, who turned her attention directly to Sheikha Moza.
“You’re a very, very powerful woman where you live, and you have great influence and power to use every gift you have to do good things for people who are hurting,” the openly Christian television presenter and singer said.
“So I ask you to reach down into that part of you — the best part of your beautiful heart — and feel compassion for them and use your beautiful voice to help free them from the despair that they’re in,” Gifford said in her appeal to Sheikha Moza.
