The Miss Universe pageant has become a bone of contention among many after it was revealed that it would take place in Israel later this year.
The tension is particularly high between Mandla Mandela and former Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan who have been embroiled in a war of words regarding the participation of Miss South Africa in the Miss Universe pageant, which the former is lobbying for her to boycott.
Now Mandla has retaliated against Sarah – who is the founder of charity Humanity Forward – after she criticized him for promoting a “political agenda”.
Last week, Sarah Idan posted a video on social media in which she criticized Mandla Mandela for calling on Miss SA, Lalela Mswane to boycott the Miss Universe pageant. Idan also slammed other countries for withdrawing from the Miss Universe competition.
Mandla responded to Idan’s accusations in another statement, where he questioned her “blind support”.
He posted: “Former Miss Iraq @sarahidan is entitled to her views and we applaud her stated stand for women and women’s empowerment. It is just tragic that in her blind support for the Apartheid State of Israel she lacks the moral fibre to also speak for the women of occupied Palestine who are routinely harassed, beaten, humiliated, incarcerated and killed by this brutal regime. Don’t Palestinian women also have human rights?”
He also expressed his anger at Idan for “turning a blind eye to the genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing being committed”.
He added: “If her selective memory doesn’t go back that far, then perhaps she can tell us and tell the world why she still supports an apartheid state that killed 60 Palestinian minor children in one week in May 2021. Did 15 year old Lina Iyad Fathi Sharir killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza not also deserve women’s empowerment?”
Sources: Africa Top Forum, MSN
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