Miss Uzbekistan mystery

So, Miss Uzbekistan, how DID you qualify for Miss World . . . from a Muslim country that holds no such contest?

    Rakhima Ganieva, 18, from Tashkent, claims to be Miss Uzbekistan 2013
    Authorities deny ever holding any such beauty competition
    Uzbek media have been unable to find out who she is
    University says it has no record of Miss Ganieva ever studying there

As beauty queens go, Miss Uzbekistan ticks all the boxes.

She’s pretty, sporty, loves to travel, has musical talent and has brains to boot (she says she likes to read Chekhov, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy).

And after she’s competed at the Miss World final in Indonesia later this month, 18-year-old Rakhima Ganieva wants to graduate from university and become a lawyer.

But there is a glaring omission from her perfect CV – Uzbekistan has no idea who she is. The predominantly Muslim country doesn’t even hold a Miss Uzbekistan contest.

Officials at the Uzbek Culture and Sports Ministry and the National Committee on Women said yesterday that anyone laying claim to the nation’s beauty crown was an imposter.

But back home, the mysterious Miss Ganieva is upsetting her compatriots.

‘Rakhima Ganieva never passed through any special selection process in Uzbekistan,’ said Zhavlon Komolov, a representative of the Tashkent-based Pro Models modelling agency, where Miss Ganieva briefly trained as a 15-year-old.

‘If there had been a process to choose a young lady for this competition, I can assure you that a much more beautiful model would have been chosen. I’m sorry that Ganieva is choosing to build a career on lies.