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The Sun newspaper reported:

The pageant is taking place in the Far East country for the first time and organisers are wary of upsetting Muslim fanatics.

[...]

But the pageant's chairwoman Julia Morley said: "I do not want to upset or get anyone in a situation where we are being disrespectful.

"We treasure respect for all the countries that take part in the pageant," she said.

Oddthinking
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user14087
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1 Answers1

7

Yes, bikinis are banned from the 2013 Miss World contest.

Reference: The New York Times

[T]he billionaire organizer of the Miss World pageant declared Thursday that there would be no bikinis this year.

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    If these were all different sources, this would be good confirmation, but several - possibly all? - of these reports have been produced from the same Associate Press source, so they are merely repeats of the claim, not independent confirmations. – Oddthinking Jun 07 '13 at 01:28
  • See also http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/10739/has-saudi-arabia-announced-plans-for-a-woman-only-city for an example of an Islam-related false claim going viral and being repeated in several sources. – Andrew Grimm Jun 07 '13 at 04:40
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    It's not that I doubt their accuracy. On the balance of probability, I would say they are likely correct. But this isn't a definitive answer. If the OP doesn't trust newspaper reports, this doesn't raise the quality of the evidence. (I can't edit away the duplicates because, for all I know, they are all duplicates of the same initial AP report.) – Oddthinking Jun 07 '13 at 05:04
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    Okay, I included a story from the New York Times instead, that is not based on the AP report, and quotes the project director from the organizer of the competition. –  Jun 07 '13 at 06:33
  • @Oddthinking if OP doesn't trust the Sun, I can't blame him. If the Sun's piece is confirmed by several other sources, independent from each other, it becomes a lot more plausible. I seriously doubt you're going to find a peer reviewed scientific study on this topic... And even those are often enough highly questionable. – jwenting Jun 07 '13 at 09:53
  • @jwenting: I don't think a peer-reviewed source is required. A press-release, a copy of the competition rules, photos from the actual event, an interview that is clearly NOT from the Associated Press - all would be independent sources. – Oddthinking Jun 07 '13 at 14:40
  • That confirms it not scheduled: not that it's "banned", or that "organisers are wary of upsetting Muslim fanatics". – ChrisW Jun 08 '13 at 04:42
  • @ChrisW If organizers of the event don't schedule something, then it's not going to happen. My answer doesn't address motivations, since the question didn't ask about motivations. –  Jun 08 '13 at 05:40
  • @Oddthinking that would be a change in the rules here as observed by most mods... – jwenting Jun 10 '13 at 06:36
  • @Jwenting: I'm not clear on your point; sounds like something that would be best spelled out on meta. – Oddthinking Jun 10 '13 at 11:23