Christina Sawaya

Christina Sawaya (Arabic; كريستين صوايا), born 16 August 1980, is a Lebanese beauty queen.

As part of her modelling career, Christina entered a series of pageants between 1998 and 2002 in which she became the winner of "Miss University" Lebanon in 1998, and was chosen as "Top Lebanon Model 1999".

In 2001, Sawaya competed with 19 women to become Miss Lebanon 2001, where she also became eligible to enter in the Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International pageants. She represented her country in the 2001 Miss World pageant, wherein she was unplaced. But at the Miss Universe 2002 Pageant, Sawaya decided to drop out of the competition after stating that she would not compete in a pageant with Miss Israel, Yamit Har-Noy. She went on to win the Miss International 2002 beauty pageant in Tokyo on September 30, 2002.^[1] Sawaya was chosen as Miss International among beauties from 51 countries.

She also became the first Miss International of Middle Eastern descent. In the same; Miss World 2002 is Azra Akın from Turkey and the original winner of Miss Earth 2002 is Džejla Glavović from Bosnia and Herzegovina which are all dominant Muslim countries. Yet it remains to mention That Christina Saway is a conservative Christian that comes from the only Arab country, Lebanon, where the president is Christian by the constitution.

In that same year, Sawaya received another honor when she became the first Miss International contestant to win the prestigious Global Beauties Award for "Best Overall Performance" in the year, a contest held between Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International. It was the first time that a Miss Universe titleholder or delegate did not win this award.

On 15 November 2003 Sawaya married Tony Baroud in Beirut. Baroud is a former member of the Lebanese national basketball team and now a sports commentator and TV entertainer with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. Tony also hosted the 2007 Miss Lebanon pageant.

References

1. ^ "Pageant Almanac". http://www.pageant-almanac.com/miss-international/former-titleholders.php.  Retrieved on 11 Apr 2008.

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Name	Sawaya, Christina
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Date of birth	1980
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