NEW DELHI: Organizers of India’s premier fashion week refused to let an Afghan beauty queen take part in a show inspired by her life as she did not have a work permit, a report said.
Vida Samadzai was lead model for Bangalore-based designer Deepika Govind’s show on Saturday, the United News of India (UNI) news agency reported.
Minutes before she was to appear on the cat walk, Samadzai was stopped by a fashion show official who said she did not have the necessary work permit, the report said .Samadzai, born and raised in the Afghan capital Kabul, emigrated to the United States in 1996 and now holds American citizenship.
The model, who travelled to India on a business visa that expires in November, had sent a letter to the Fashion Design Council of India seeking permission to take part in Govind’s show."
I don’t know why I was not allowed to walk. No money was exchanged," Samadzai,Afghanistan’s unofficial representative at the Miss Earth contest in Manila in 2003, was quoted as saying.
Govind, whose collection titled "Tears of the Muses" was inspired by Samadzai’s life, said she had also sought permission for the model to work for her because "she represented the courage and spirit I believe in."
But FDCI chief Rathi Vinay Jha stood firm."You know that the permission of the Indian government is needed for a foreign model or choreographer to work on a ramp.
"Why should she (Samadzai) be allowed to walk without a work permit?"Samadzai, however, made a brief appearance at the end of the show, coming out on the ramp with Govind to acknowledge an ovation from the audience.
Samadzai is no stranger to controversy, being one of the few Afghan women to participate in an international beauty pageant in decades. Her appearance at the Miss Earth pageant in a bikini raised the hackles of many back home in Afghanistan three years ago.
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