Silva Shahakian
Silva Shahakian, an Iraqi-Armenian [1], was crowned Miss Iraq on April 13, 2006. She received the crown because the initial winner, Tamar Goregian (another Armenian) feared retribution from militants.
She plans to attend the 2006 Miss Universe pageant, being held in Los Angeles on July 23.
Quote
- "This chance does not come to every girl. So, I'm lucky to have that. I'm not going to lose it,"
SILVA SAHAGIAN earned the title of Iraq's Teen Queen (4th place) ON April 5th 2006 and on April 10th she was declared Iraq's Beauty Queen (MISS IRAQ) 2006 after the original winner resigned on April 9th. Silva also was second as audience favorite and therefore took the audience favorite title as well when Tamar Goregian was disqualified for the title upon her request to leave the country.
She cited death threats but we then learned that her boyfriend pressured her to give up the crown.
source: TALAT MODEL MANAGEMENT ( ORGANIZERS OF THE PAGEANT )