The Miss Universe beauty pageant, a globally recognized event, has attracted an unusual amount of attention this year due to the participation of Nadeen Ayoub, who is competing as Miss Palestine.
This has sparked controversy, given that some nations do not acknowledge "Palestine" as an independent state. However, the intrigue surrounding Ayoub extends beyond her title.
Ayoub's personal life, which had been largely concealed, became a subject of interest as she advanced through the preliminary rounds of the competition. This curiosity led the New York Post to investigate, and the revelations were startling. According to the New York Post,
"The first-ever Miss Palestine contestant in the Miss Universe pageant married the son of Hamas most-wanted prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, and even named a child after him." This information was unveiled just a day before the Miss Universe contest.
The New York Post's investigation involved analyzing old screenshots and social media posts, which indicated that Ayoub had made significant efforts to conceal her previous marriage to Sharaf Barghouti. Sharaf is the son of Marwan Barghouti, a notorious Fatah leader who is serving five life sentences in Israel for orchestrating terror attacks that resulted in the deaths of five people in 2001 and 2002. Marwan Barghouti has been a topic of discussion in recent hostage negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
Ayoub, a 27-year-old U.S. and Canadian citizen residing in Dubai, reportedly married Sharaf in 2016 and had a son named "Marwan," after her imprisoned father-in-law. The New York Post described Ayoub's past as "a secret life" and confirmed the story with family members. Some relatives acknowledged Ayoub's marriage to Sharaf but claimed ignorance regarding their current status.
The New York Post also interviewed individuals who knew Ayoub and had attended her wedding, further corroborating her marriage to the son of a Hamas terrorist leader. Ayoub's ties to Marwan Barghouti extend beyond her marriage. The New York Post discovered that her former place of employment, a gym, was owned by another son of the convicted terrorist.
The extent of Ayoub's current involvement in her child's life remains uncertain, as most of her connections to the family have been meticulously erased from the internet, as reported by the New York Post. Despite Ayoub's attempts to erase her past, public opinion on Miss Palestine remains divided, reflecting the contentious discourse surrounding the Palestinian people.
The Miss Universe finale, which promises to be a spectacle of beauty and controversy, will be broadcast on Telemundo and the Peacock streaming service. As the world watches, the story of Miss Palestine, Nadeen Ayoub, serves as a stark reminder of the complex and often hidden narratives that can lie beneath the surface of such global events.
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