Just In: Kano Hisbah To Arrest Shatu Garko’s Parents Over Participation In Miss Nigeria Contest

The Kano State Hisbah commander, Haruna Ibn Sina, has said that parents of Miss Nigeria winner, Shatu Garko, may be arrested and interrogated for allowing their daughter to participate in Miss Nigeria Beauty Pageant for 2021, describing it as “illegal” and contrary to Islamic beliefs.

Recall that 18 year-old Shatu Garko from Kano State recently emerged as the 44th Miss Nigeria, the first hijab adorning Muslim to win the beauty pageant.

Reacting to Miss Garko’s victory in the beauty pageant in an interview with BBC Pidgin, Ibn Sina said participating in a pageant is “forbidden” for Muslims from Kano, a northern Nigerian state with strict Sharia practices.

He said they had confirmed that Ms Garko’s parents are living in Kano and will soon be brought into custody and interrogated for the role their daughter played in the beauty contest.

Though Miss Garko participated in the pageant adorning her hijab, the Hisbah commander further condemned the exercise as a whole, saying it was against Islamic instruction.

Before now, Hisbah, which was adopted in many northern states in early 2000, had banned tailors, supermarkets and boutique owners from using mannequins to display clothes in the state.

In June, the religious police arrested 40 teenagers for selling condoms and Marijuana in Kano and also prohibited the sharing of pre-wedding photos of the daughter of Emir of Bichi, Zahrah Bayero, who married Yusuf Buhari, saying it is a sin.