Miss Guyana World Rafieya Husain has made many Guyanese proud by putting the country back in the pageantry limelight after she earned a spot in the Top 10 at the Miss World Pageant 2014 on Sunday held in London.
Husain had done exceptionally well throughout the pageant – the best performance seen by a Guyanese contestant since the 1970s. She even copped several coveted awards including the Beauty with a Purpose Award. For this competition, contestants are judged on the basis of the value they have added to society and for the first time ever, there was not one but many winners declared for the competition. Husain was also named Miss Caribbean after being the only contestant from a Caribbean Country to be placed in the Top 10. Additionally, she placed second in the Multimedia Award contest.|
Husain’s platform was domestic violence and she has been working to highlight and make people aware about domestic violence faced by young married women. She revealed that she was once a victim of domestic violence, which motivated her to take an active stand against the societal scourge. In her commentary, she related the story of a brave 21-year-old girl called ‘Natasha’, whose two children were killed by her husband in a drunken stupor. “My personal mission is to bring more awareness through education on recognising the early signs of Domestic Violence. I am passionate about the things set before me and ambitious enough to accomplish the task at hand,” her profile on the Miss World Website states.
The 22-year-old was crowned Miss World Guyana 2014 in May last, and promised to work with various organizations to fight the scourge of domestic violence, by tackling it from the grassroots level.
The Anna Regina, Essequibo, born young woman grew up in Georgetown, before relocating to the United States at age 11. She is currently a third-year Business Administration student. Husain aspires to be an entrepreneur, and hopes her studies will equip her with the tools to be successful. In her spare time she enjoys archery, cooking and reading, and likes to travel as much as possible, collecting snow globes from all the places she visits.
Meanwhile, the Miss World 2014 pageant favourite, Miss South Africa Rolene Strauss took away the coveted title. The 22-year-old beauty queen was crowned onstage at the competition’s grand finale at the Excel London ICC Auditorium.