An update on this story from Reuters:
MUMBAI (Reuters) – A prize-winning bikini competition contestant who claimed to represent Pakistan, sparking some outrage in the Muslim country, says she wanted to project the nation as a modern one.
Officials in Pakistan, which does not hold beauty pageants, said on Thursday they were investigating how Texas-based Mariyah Moten, 22, entered a “Miss Bikini” pageant in China last month as a Pakistani contestant.
[…]
“I have broken all the barriers, and in the coming years there will be other Pakistani contestants who will carry this title,” Moten, described by Pakistani media as the country’s first bikini queen, told the Times of India newspaper.
“My intention was to project Pakistan in a very modern way.”
The behavior of many Pakistani National Assembly members over the pending Women’s Protection Bill should serve as an accurate gauge of how “modern” Pakistan sees itself as far as women are concerned. Ms. Moten may not be fully aware of this side of her country.
Pakistani authorities said they might take up the issue with China, and might also withdraw from Moten privileges offered to people of Pakistani descent such as visa-free travel to Pakistan.
[…]
“The hardliners are basically people who impose their thoughts on others, and we are not affected by people like them.
Not in the US, at least, thankfully.
“It is actually very amusing how they are always so ready to react,” the daily quoted her as saying.
A rather naive assessment, when one considers how often the response of those “hardliners” involves threats and violence.