Miss Ethiopia
Miss Ethiopia is a national beauty pageant in Ethiopia.
History
The Miss Ethiopia began in 1963. There were two editions during the period and it finally rerun as the Miss Ethiopia pageant in 1988 under the Ethio American Entertainment Inc. Currently, the Miss Ethiopia pageant is owned by Murad Mohammed.Controversies
The chairman of Miss Ethiopia, Murad Mohammed, is the director of Ethiopian Village Adventure Playground, which claims ownership of Miss Ethiopia, and has frequently announced that the Miss Ethiopia queens would participate in international pageants like Miss International, Miss Earth, Miss Progress, etc. despite not owning a franchise for the pageants. Much of the judging is not done publicly, so the general population is not able to follow the process from start to finish, or see the final event taking place.Lack of transparency
The latest version of the pageant is seen to lack transparency, due to the fact that the winner is suddenly announced without a proper contest being held, girls are put in a studio with sashes proclaiming them to be finalist, but the public are not able to follow the process from start to finish, or see the actual final event taking place.In several years past the runner up has simply been appointed Miss Ethiopia by Murad Mohammed and Ethiopian Village Adventure Playground for the purpose of attending Miss World for example. Melkam Michael Endale who was crowned Miss Ethiopia 2010 for example, who never got her promised car or 100,000 ETBirr, was simply appointed as Miss World Ethiopia in 2012, without taking part in a contest for the purpose of attending Miss World 2012