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Brave Miss World: From beauty queen to anti-sexual violence activist

Former Miss World Linor Abargil of Israel looks on during a function to celebrate International Women's Day in New Delhi on March 10, 2014. Just six weeks prior to her participation in the Miss World contest 1998, Abargil was abducted, stabbed, and raped in Milan when she was 18 years old. Despite the excruciating trauma, she went on to win the Miss World contest in 1998.
SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images
Former Miss World Linor Abargil of Israel looks on during a function to celebrate International Women's Day in New Delhi on March 10, 2014. Just six weeks prior to her participation in the Miss World contest 1998, Abargil was abducted, stabbed, and raped in Milan when she was 18 years old. Despite the excruciating trauma, she went on to win the Miss World contest in 1998.

Two teenage sisters were found raped and hung by attackers from a mango tree in India last month – yet another case of violence against women in a country where a rape is committed every 22 minutes.

Two teenage sisters were found raped and hung by attackers from a mango tree in India last month – yet another case of violence against women in a country where a rape is committed every 22 minutes.

But this is not happening in India alone. More than three years after the Arab Spring uprising, Egypt has experienced a plague of sexual assaults. And the more than 200 school girls kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria are still missing.  Colleges and universities across the U.S., meanwhile, have been trying to figure out how best to deal with a proliferation of rape cases on campus.

How can we stop this global epidemic? Linor Abargil was 18 when she was abducted and raped in Milan, Italy—just six weeks before she had to represent Israel in the Miss World competition in 1998. Abargil won, and used her new-found influence to fight for justice for other victims of sexual abuse. Her journey is the subject of the documentary, Brave Miss World.

Guest:

Cecilia Peck, filmmaker, Brave Miss World, which is currently streaming on Netflix 

Linor Abargil, Miss World 1998 and the subject of the film 

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