Reuters
Saudi tribe holds camel beauty pageant
By Andrew Hammond | April 26, 2007
GUWEI'IYYA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - The legs are long, the eyes are big, the bodies curvaceous.
Contestants in this Saudi-style beauty pageant have all the features you might expect anywhere else in the world, but with one crucial difference -- the competitors are camels.
This week, the Qahtani tribe of western Saudi Arabia has been welcoming entrants to its Mazayen al-Ibl competition, a parade of the 'most beautiful camels' in the desolate desert region of Guwei'iyya, 120 km (75 miles) west of Riyadh.
'In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon,' jokes Walid, moderator of the competition's Web site. 'Here we have Miss Camel.'
"The nose should be long and droop down, that's more beautiful," explains Sultan al-Qahtani, one of the organizers. "The ears should stand back, and the neck should be long. The hump should be high, but slightly to the back."
The camels are divided into four categories according to breed -- the black majaheem, white maghateer, dark brown shi'l and the sufur, which are beige with black shoulders. Arabic famously has over 40 terms for different types of camel.
Some females have harnesses strapped around their genitalia to thwart any efforts by the males to mount them. One repeat offender called Marjaa has been moved away.
Notice they don't say what species of male tries to mount them!
1 comment:
I thought they were talking about the Saudi women being mounted by the male camels...
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