but the media carried hardly any news about her as all the attention focused on the transgendered contestant who didn’t win.
The Canadian Press wire service carried a 27-sentence story on the finals of the beauty contest. Biniaz got mention in part of one sentence; that was all.
The rest focused on Jenna Talackova, who was born Walter Talackova and became a woman four years ago. When that fact was discovered earlier this year, she was booted out of the contest. After a huge uproar, pageant owner Donald Trump overruled his staff and let Talackova back in.
She was named Miss Congeniality in the finals Saturday and continued to dominate news coverage of the event as she made the top 12 of the finals.
Baniaz, 26, was born in India to Iranian parents and reared in Iran before moving to Van-couver. She was a runner-up in the contest in 2008. Her website describes her as a “former” beauty pageant contestant who is now a full time actress. But somewhere along the line she decided to enter this year’s Miss Universe Canada contest. She will now go to the global finals representing Canada.
In 2003, Nazanin Afshin-Jam was named Miss World Canada, a different contest, and went to the global finals of that pageant where she was runner-up.
