Pageant Contestants Highlight Violence Against Women Instead Of Their Measurements

Contestants in the Miss Perú 2018 beauty pageant made a powerful statement about violence against women on Sunday night. 

Usually, contestants introduce themselves one by one stating their names and their body measurements including bust, waist and hip measurements. This year, instead of giving their measurements, the contestants decided to highlight much more important numbers: each woman listed a fact about violence against women in Perú.  

Each of the contestants highlighted different subjects including femicide (or killing of women because they’re female) street harassment, and sexual abuse. 

Scroll below to see some of the first few statements from pageant contestants. 

1. “My name is Camila Canicoba and I represent the department of Lima. My measurements are: 2,202 cases of femicides reported in the last nine years in my country.” 

2. “My name is Karen Cueto, and I represent Lima. And my measurements are: 82 femicides and 156 attempts so far this year.”  

3. “My name is Juana Acevedo and my measurements are: More than 70 percent of women in our country are victims of street harassment.” 

4. “My name is Melody Calderón, and I represent La Libertad. My measurements are: 81 percent of aggressors of girls younger than 5 are close to the family.” 

5. “Almendra Marroquin greets you, representative of Cañete. And my measurements are: More than 25 percent of girls and teens are abused in their schools.” 

6. “My name is Bélgica Guerra. I represent Chincha. And my measurements are: 65 percent of women who attend university are assaulted by their partners.” 

As BuzzFeed pointed out, the women were not alone in their protest. During the swimsuit portion of the competition, the pageant organizers displayed different media headlines of stories about the murder and assault of women in Perú. 

Skip to 3:45 to watch the full moment. 

Carolina Moreno translated the above quotes from Spanish to English for HuffPost.