The words "ban" and "landmines" go together in many people's minds, and for good reason. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians, many of them impoverished, are tragically maimed or killed by unexploded landmines every year.

The Cambodian government recently missed this point entirely when they acted to ban not landmines, but the Miss Landmine pageant, a beauty contest for women who have been victims of landmine explosions. (Cambodia is a party to the Ottawa treaty on anti-personnel mines, lest you think they are completely ruthless ... like the U.S., which has not signed the treaty.)

Beauty pageants are considered to be illegal in Cambodia, but the decision has nonetheless angered many activists worldwide, who have accused the government of violating fundamental human rights by shutting down the event.

Empowerment Pageants

Morten Traavik, a Norwegian theatre actor and director who founded Miss Landmine, is well aware of the stigma attached to beauty contests. But his opinion of them changed drastically while living in Angola. Some of the more destitute children of Luanda, Angola's capital, once asked Traavik to judge a beauty contest they were holding called Miss Backstreet. "It was a very inclusive event," he told the Abu Dhabi-based English language paper The National. "It made me see how uncomplicated it can be, a playful celebration of life and beauty."

Traavik was then inspired to apply this concept to landmine victims. He started Miss Landmine in a bid not only to raise awareness through a beauty pageant that exclusively featured women maimed by landmines, but also to give these women a sense of empowerment and an improved self-image, too. The Angolan and Norwegian governments, though initially skeptical, were eventually convinced and gave Taarvik a grant. The first pageant was held in Angola in 2008, despite some NGOs concerns that it would devolve into a "freak show".

When Traavik wanted to take his idea to Cambodia, at first the authorities cautiously accepted it. Beauty pageants may be illegal, but landmine victims are plentiful-about one a day in Cambodia in 2008-and still in need of assistance. The Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) and other official organizations offered their support, and a pageant was planned for August.

Amidst what some decry as a general crackdown on human rights, the government then reversed its decision. Miss Landmine was ordered to cease operations in the country by the Ministry of Social Affairs on July 31, claiming that the affair "would make a mockery of Cambodia's landmine victims." Traavik would have to return to Norway. 

Expression Pageants

The decision to cancel the pageant didn't exactly cause any massive social upheaval in Cambodia, where many saw the contest as an offense to their sensibilities. "Yes, the competition is supposed to show that women with missing limbs can be beautiful," one reader, Ambreen Mirza, wrote to The Phnom Penh Post, "but could this not have been highlighted in a different way?" Something else that Mirza found offensive was the whole competition aspect. "Could the organisers have...given ALL these women custom-made prosthetics that they wouldn't have to ‘compete' for?"

For Traavik and the women planning to compete, however, the cancellation is a massive letdown. "I feel unhappy because when the party was canceled it meant that I, a disabled person, lost my right of expression," Song Kosal, a contestant, amputee and landmine awareness activist told the The Global Post.

Beauty pageants may not be thought of as a pillar of freedom of expression, but these women were clearly keen on the idea that amputees should have nothing to be ashamed of physically. The incentive offered by the prosthetic limb may have encouraged them, but the contestants entered on their own free will. Any accusations of exploitation can be countered by the argument that these women did not have anyone else lining up at their doors, offering them top of the line prosthetic limbs. Beauty pageants may be considered demeaning to women and are thus illegal in Cambodia, but why not make an exception for one that raises awareness and allows contestants to express themselves in a positive way, where a public outlet for such expression from impoverished amputees barely exists? 

Furthermore, was Miss Landmine even primarily a pageant? Can't it make a claim to being a form of artistic expression, first and foremost?

Cultural Differences or Government Crackdown?

Freedom of expression isn't the only human right that the Cambodian government is suppressing, either. Traavik was denied permission to host a dinner with the contestants shortly after, where he wanted to thank them and give them a gift of $200. He is still planning on conducting the pageant online, though, and claims he will deliver the prosthetic leg to the winner, even if he has to do it "Rambo-style."