Miss Egypt crowns 20-year-old Lara Debbane

The organizing committee of the national Miss Egypt Contest, “Gamalek Ya Masr” (Your Beauty Oh Egypt), in Sharm el-Sheikh, declared 20-year-old Lara Debbane as Miss Egypt 2014.

Debbane is the niece of Hoda Abboud, the winner of the first Miss Egypt contest in 1986.

Youssef Spahy, the organizer of the contest, told privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that contestant Heba Hesham was declared the runner up, and Shaima Bakr came in third place.

In an interview with CNN, Spahy said the Miss Egypt contest aims to revive tourism in Egypt, adding that the ministry is sponsoring this year’s event.

The Miss Egypt contest didn’t take place for the last four years due to political instability in the country.

Beauty contests have been part of Egyptian society since the middle of last century. Competitions like “Miss Miami” in Alexandria, “Miss Maadi” and “Miss Ras al-Bar” were once widely acclaimed social practices of the upper classes.

Often the winners of such contests would later assume a career in acting or modeling, such as actress Karima Abdallah, wife of singer Mohamed Fawzy, and former model Ragaa al-Geddawy, who is still a renowned actress.

In recent times, actresses Dalia al-Behery and Horeya Farghally were also winners of the Miss Egypt contest.

The 1954 Miss World winner was Ontigone Constanda, representing Egypt. The contest took place in London and the Greek-Egyptian contestant was selected from among 16 global contestants.