CAIRO – A beauty pageant to boost tourism in Malaysia has drawn sharp criticism from leading Islamic parties on Tuesday, January 12, dubbing it as a haram contest that exploit women.

“Clearly the Miss Tourism competition is ‘haram’ according to Islam because of the clothes that are revealing and disrespectful, while the attendees also comprise both men and women,” Awan Melaka, Amanah’s Malacca women’s wing, said in a Facebook posting on Tuesday cited by The Malay Mail Online.

“We as women feel insulted because this program clearly exploits women and displays the shape of their body and also their aurat to men,”

Amanah party’s criticism for the decision by Malacca authorities to host a beauty pageant to boost tourism has echoed that of Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS).

The Miss Tourism World is an international event which has been previously hosted in Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea and Thailand, among others.

The winner for this year’s Miss Tourism World, which is being hosted in Malacca, is set to be crowned this Saturday.

Amanad party, a splinter from PAS, added that the Malacca government should also apologize to women for organizing the Miss Tourism Queen of the Year International 2016 competition.

“Awan Melaka regrets that the vice program is still going on using the excuse to draw tourists to Malacca,” the group said.

Malacca PAS Muslimat chief Kintan Man expressed a similar criticism.

“PAS Muslimat, which upholds PAS’ policy of Islam, strongly opposes the organizing of this program,” said Kintan, adding that it went against Allah’s laws.

She added that there were many other ways for the state to draw in more visitors.

Suggestions included upgrading Malacca’s many tourist spots as well as promoting the state’s culture through various community-wide activities instead of using a beauty competition.

Malaysia has a population of nearly 26 millions, with Malays, mostly Muslims, making up nearly 60%.

Islam is the religion of morals. It keeps woman’s honor and dignity, raises her status and preserves her chastity.

It also intends to safeguard Muslim women from all attempts to render them into mere beauty objects.

According to Muslim scholars, the Islamic Shari`ah obligates covering the `awrah and protecting honors.

In these contests, the contestants are demanded to display their God-given architecture for the whole world to review and this is absolutely haram.

Therefore, neither Muslim individuals nor the Islamic states are allowed to organize or participate in these contests.