Why are you here in Nepal?
I am here to do stories for my magazine. One is on polyandry issues. And the other is about climate refugees.[break]
What kind of a magazine is Goedele?
It is basically a lifestyle magazine, which is dedicated to my name, as I am the representative. The magazine carries various issues related to lifestyle as well as sexual issues related to women. It is basically a magazine focused on empowering women.
I always appear on the cover of this magazine, while I also do reports and take care of editing. It’s a monthly magazine. It appears on the stalls every first Wednesday of the month.
You’ve been crowned Miss Belgium in the past. How did you make the transition from being a beauty queen to a journalist?
I became Miss Belgium at the age of 22. I didn’t really know much about being a beauty queen at that time. It was a fluke. My sister’s boyfriend sent my photographs to the organizers and that’s how it all started.
The incentive for me to join the competition was, the top 20 contestants would win a trip to Italy and the winner would be awarded a car. I came from a not very well to do family and the trip to Italy and the car seemed like lucrative offers.
How did you win the title?
I guess I changed the trend in Europe at that time. Women who became beauty queens were usually women with pretty faces. And I always felt you had to be a person with a firm head on your shoulders to become a beauty queen.
When it was my turn to speak, I spoke my mind, which must have impressed the judges. These days, I am invited to judge beauty pageants in France, Belgium, Holland and South Africa, and I always look for girls who have understood life, rather than choosing merely beautiful faces. Beauty is about intelligence.
So, what do you think of beauty pageants?
I don’t think so highly of beauty pageants. After my crowning as Miss Belgium, I also participated in Miss World in Macau and Miss Universe in Panama. I saw when I was there that women even have cosmetic surgery done just so that they can win beauty pageants.
It made me very angry to see like contests like Miss Universe and Miss World focused so much on physical beauty and not much on intelligence.
When I was crowned Miss Belgium, it felt like a year of burden. I wanted to get rid of the title quickly. For a whole year, I had to focus too much on beauty and behave formally wherever I went.
For someone who had never been on the ramp before, this was an ordeal. But I must say being a beauty contestant also brought many opportunities my way.
In Nepal, beauty contests always take place amid heavy protests from women’s activists and some political parties. Do you think beauty pageants should be discontinued?
I am also a women’s activist. But I don’t’ think beauty pageants should be discontinued. We should also respect people’s individual rights. But when we set the criteria, the focus should be not on external appearance. What is important is to find a raw diamond and niche it in the correct way, to bring out the best.
What kind of responsibility did you bear when you became Miss Belgium? For instance, in Nepal, Miss Nepal is the ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund and they are expected to work for the benefit of animals.
Responsibility is something you feel and not something that’s thrust upon you. As a beauty queen, one has to be allowed to do work she likes best. For instance, if the person is interested in animals, it’s alright to represent WWF.
But otherwise, one might want to work for the betterment of children or for the development of other sectors. It should not be a water-tight compartment. The beauty queens should be able to take up responsibility in the sector they are interested in.
How did you become a goodwill ambassador for UNFPA?
After winning the title of Miss Belgium, I was often invited to various TV programs. In due course, one of the TV stations invited me to host a show. I started a talk show, which was based on sex and relationships. As someone who had graduated as a Medical Psychologist, it was an appropriate show for me.
I had the opportunity to travel to many countries while running the show. When I was visiting Pakistan, I was struck by the struggles facing women in the country. I saw women bearing a number of children, migrating by themselves, while their men did not care to even earn them their daily bread.
It made me decide that I wanted to work for the cause of women. So from the talk show, on sex and relationships, I moved on to doing a show about women of strength. The program was called Strong Women.
Is there a show that made a strong impact on you, among these?
A story about Uganda’s woman child soldiers and genital mutilation of girls in Somalia and Bangladesh were stories that had a lasting impact on me as well as my viewers. The stories shocked my audience.
While I was doing such stories, I received a letter from then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in 1999, asking me to become a UN Goodwill Ambassador. At first, I thought of it as a joke. But I realized it was a very good opportunity to do something good and I agreed.
So, what does a UN Goodwill Ambassador do?
We travel to different places and we meet annually to discuss our experiences and share reports. I’ve also met Hollywood Star Angelina Jolie on one of those occasions. The Belgian Princess and I are a part of this group.
We discuss ideas and present it to the UN for formulating further policies. There are eleven of us.
Are you going to use the stories from Nepal for these reports?
Yes. It will appear as the cover story in my magazine. I’m also interested in doing a documentary on the issue of polyandry. I feel that as the system is going out of practice in Nepal as well, I might be from the last generation to witness such a practice.
I’ve also seen a lot of poverty due to climate change. I’ve seen how people are suffering as climate refugees. It’s important to show this picture to the world, because there will be more such cases and we have to be on the vigil.
It’s the developed nations that are responsible for the carbon emissions, but the poor countries are the sufferers. It’s also imperative to show this reality to the world.
How did you like Nepal?
It’s a beautiful country. And Nepali men are lucky because Nepali women are the prettiest I’ve ever seen. People are very pleasant and friendly. But your traffic is terrible. There needs to be more education on traffic rules.
The most annoying part is honking on the streets of Kathmandu!
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