Natasha Paracha

Natasha Paracha (), born in Islamabad, Pakistan on 17 November, 1984 won the Miss Pakistan World () pageant in 2008.

Current Title

Natasha Paracha from Islamabad, Pakistan and residing in New York City, USA, has been crowned the new Miss Pakistan World in an annual beauty pageant which, according to its founder, would enable Pakistani women "to stand up for change and progression" in a society that frowns on such events on its soil.

The 23-year-old graduate from the University of California at Berkeley replaces Mahleej Sarkari who created quite a stir last month when she called Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf a hunk and expressed a desire to date him.

At the sixth annual beauty pageant in Toronto, the gorgeous Paracha beat ten (10) Pakistani beauties to win the crown. She will now represent Pakistan at various international beauty pageants.Tahira Iqbal from Lahoreand Nosheen Idrees from Jhelum were declared runners-up at the event. The pageant brought ten young Pakistani women from around the world to compete for the crown, which many view as anti-Islamic and an insult to Muslim women.

Paracha, who is currently living in New York, founded the Pakistani Student Association at UC Berkley and later a non-profit Vision of Development which works for the uplift of women in rural Pakistan.

After her crowning, she said her goal over the next year is not only to represent Pakistan at beauty pageants but also raise awareness that 51 million Pakistanis do not have access to medical care. Natasha got known to the world after making statements against the Taliban which the Pakistani government compromising with. During her reign, Natasha Paracha got involved with a lot of charities and spread the positive image of Pakistan to the world. She was seen on major Television Stations in the USA, Canada, India and Pakistan.

"Pakistan's slow changing movement to liberate its women forbids such events from taking place on its soil. Thus, women who want to stand up for change and progression have no choice but make a trip to Canada to compete," said pageant founder Sonia Ahmed.

"Pakistani women have always been forced to stay in the background. They have never had the opportunities to have their voice heard and stand for what they believe in. It was only after living in Canada that I realised that women really do have the power to make a difference and make a change,".

Controversy

In December 2008, Paracha made headlines, being criticized in not using the correct terminology. In response to the November 2008 Mumbai attacks said she "condoned" the attack not once, but twice in an interview with CNN.

She said:

She later said it again in a separate statement in that same interview:

For a University of California Berkley graduate, it later turned out that she wrongly used the word "condone", rather than "condemn". Not only was she Miss Pakistan but also the chairperson of Pakistani affairs with the United Nations International Renewable Energy Organisation

Statements against Taliban

According to an interview with the Press Trust of India (PTI), Natasha Paracha took out a statement against the Taliban infecting Pakistan.

This was the first time a beauty queen attacked Talibans and [...] groups in Pakistan.

Additional information can be found at:

New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/nyregion/19bigcity.html?em

CNN Live - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/12/14/coren.intv.paracha.world.cnn?iref=videosearch

Times of India - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2957969.cms Yahoo India - http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081222/874/twl-founder-of-miss-pakistan-world-pagea.html

MSN News - http://lifestyle.in.msn.com/fashion/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1429533

Yahoo India - http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/16191/San-Francisco-woman-Mrs-Pakistan-World.html

DNA - http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1215341 The Telegraph - http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081220/jsp/frontpage/story_10278137.jsp

BBC Radio Interview with finalist contestant - http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2008/05/15/shawkat_st_people_feature.shtml