We don’t have bikini round in Miss Nepal. In the history of beauty contests, the only beauty contest to ever have a swimsuit round was Miss Kathmandu 2017 (Read more about Miss Kathmandu 2017 here). Not having such contest at home and participating in international beauty contest has a certain disadvantage. For example, the current Miss Asia Pacific Nepal, Sahara Basnet, wore bikini for the first time in Philippines, in the finale of Miss Asia Pacific International 2017. It is anybody’s guess how the self-consicous beauty might have performed at the contest.

I think, it is time to re-think the decision not to have bikini round in Miss Nepal. They should have the round just to prepare themselves for the international arena they will have to compete in.

Sahara Basnet bikini experience

The following text is what Sahara wrote about her experience in the swimsuit. In summary:

• Sahara has always been a shy and introvert girl
• Sahara had never worn a bikini before.
• While wearing bikini itself was awkward for her, doing a photoshoot in one was the thing she had never thought about. Doing bikini photoshoot and walking wearing them was not easy for her. (That was done in the finale of an international beauty contest)

Such experience is not something a representative of the whole country should have. She should have been prepared for everything including the bikini rounds.

The organizers should learn from the experiences of the participants and prepare themselves for those surprises. Even if there was no bikini round in Miss Nepal beauty contest, Sahara had enough time to practice wearing bikini at home and prepare herself to be comfortable in it.

Read the full statement of Sahara, in her Instagram post:

From being an extremely shy Introverted girl to becoming a women who embraces herself for all her blessings and flaws, I sure have come a long way. Doing this shoot was not easy for me. For someone who had never worn a bikini before, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of not only wearing it but having a photoshoot in it. However I conquered my fear as this is not only something I had signed on for but also something that made me feel comfortable with the way I was created. An experience I thought would leave me so self conscious and uncomfortable actually ended up making me feel extremely empowered and confident with who I was. Miss Asia Pacific International is a pageant centered around celebrating the beauty in diversity, where women are celebrated for their unique selves and are taught to love themselves for how God has created them. I was someone who hated every physical part of herself, I never felt like was good enough nor would I ever be. But now, going through the experience just in this 1 year has taught me to love myself the way I am and thank the lord every single day for providing me with we the life I have. Thank you @missasiapacificintl for being a platform for women to feel comfortable and confident in their own skin, a platform where diversity is celebrated every single day. #greatfulforeverything#blessed#MissAsiaPacificInternational2017#missaasiapacificintl2017

A post shared by Sahara Basnet (@saharabasnet) on Nov 22, 2017 at 4:46pm PST