Rana: No chance for Arab in Israeli world of modeling
Dreams, apparently, don't only come true in fairytales. Two years after leaving Israel, Rana Raslan, Israel's first Arab to be crowned Miss Israel - has recently shared her personal Cinderella story with an Israeli daily.
A young Arab woman from a poor Haifa neighborhood, Rana became Israel's first Arab woman to win the title of "Miss Israel" four years ago. She reveals her amazing story bit by bit – a story of a girl from a poor family, who suffered from discrimination and eventually married a multi-millionaire - the son of a Persian Gulf oil tycoon.
"People tell me, you are a Cinderella story, but deep inside, I am the same Rana from Houri street, afraid and insecure, who doesn't appreciate herself, and still fights to be equal." "I admit", she says, "Sometimes I prefer not to watch the news, not to know, to distance myself from it all.
To watch only funny movies on TV or Arab series." The interview with the Tel Aviv-based Yediot Aharonot newspaper was held at her mother Faida's house in Wadi Nisnas, a house that was recently re-furnished; one of the signs of new wealth in the Raslan family. Over one million NIS (some US$200,000) were invested in the refurnishing of her mother's home, a woman who worked till recently as a cook at a local hotel. Rana remembers how she used to take a shower with a stick in her hand, to defend herself from open electricity wires. she used to touch the faucets, the electricity would make her tremble, and Rana would touch the stick.
So the first thing she did when she wed Tareq Mizayun was to fix the electricity in her mother's home. "I travel throughout the entire world, but my head is in the house in the Wadi. I re-furnished our home in Cairo, but felt uncomfortable that my mother lives in an old house…My husband told me - buy them whatever you wish, and thereafter, I embarked on a shopping spree".
Once in a couple of weeks, far from cocktail parties in Monte Carlo and shopping sprees in Via-Vento, Raslan goes back to her home on Houri street. "July is St. Tropez, August – Sardinia, and winter – St. Moritz", she once said, and it seems, that behind this sentence is the story of her detachment – an Arab woman in Israel, an Israeli in Egypt, and a sincere girl lacking formal manners in Europe's High-Society. In the two years after being chosen as Miss Israel in 1999, she tried to find her way in the Israeli world of modeling, but discovered, according to her, that there wasn't true pluralism in it. "Following the (beauty) pageant, the entire world wanted to interview me. I was a gimmick. I was an Arab, and I didn't understand that I was actually a black duckling. I didn't understand correctly the world's interest in me. I was naïve." In the past, Rana was quoted as saying, "They chose me because I'm beautiful…But it's something more special, so special, that I'm Arab and the Jews chose me. It's very nice."
"Designer Galit Levy, (One of Israel's top designers – Albawaba) took advantage of my innocence and dressed me up in a dress with a Shield of David in it. I thought that was the symbol of the country, and that in the State of Israel – there were Arabs and Jews. "(However) that caused many problems for me. I also received threats on my life from both sides. My house turned into a cage, a fortress. Suddenly no one came.
I would sit and wait for invitations, for shows, but nothing…I was good for decoration, but that didn't last". She had no choice but to model in shows at low-class hotels throughout the country to make some money for Ashraf, her jailed brother, and to pay for her mother's phone bills and help her sister at school. Then, when the Intifada and the October riots began, Raslan felt she was pushed to the margins, because no one wanted to hire an Arab model, especially one with a "big mouth"… "It wasn't easy, I tried many times to 'push' her into shows, but people said – 'that Arab'", says Betty Rockaway, Raslan's agent. "When the Intifada broke out, no one wanted to hear about her. I couldn’t find her a job". Rana explains that she was very hurt by this, especially since she was Miss Israel. No one wanted her to model for them. She says she was discriminated against for many years, but that the obstacles just strengthened her. At one point, Rana tells the paper, she even considered becoming a religious Muslim, so that Allah would help her. "I told myself I've reached the top, but everything is still black. I was tired of pleasing everyone – Jews and Arabs….I had a tape of the Koran, and I started listening to it and cried….I told my mother I want to be religious, but she disagreed with me.
She told me to believe in my way, as I am. With time, I understood that even if you put a Kafia on your head, it doesn't mean you've changed. Change comes within." "A few months later, my luck indeed started to change. I sold my car, which I received for winning the Beauty pageant….Suddenly, positive energy started to come."
Rockaway was invited to a cruise in Mikonos, with the nephew of maritime tycoon Onassis, and along with her, she took four models, among them Rana. An agent for Image in Europe offered Raslan to come with her to Rome and Rockaway encouraged Rana to go. In no time, Raslan was offered various modeling jobs in Italy and also started modeling throughout Europe. "I stopped thinking all the time that I was chosen because I am an Arab and to say I am Miss Israel. I was fed up with that title."
"Only in Israel, Rana is not worth anything", she tells the daily. "Till today, I am treated like trash at the airport. I haven't visited Israel for three months because of what I had gone through during security checks. I was asked questions in a vulgar manner, held for hours. They also searched me; I have no problem being treated like any other civilian, but there is a way to do so, with delicacy. I am a woman." "Ever since I married an Arab, I have even been treated worst, because I traveled often to Egypt – therefore a 'red sticker' was stuck to me, which means every lipstick of mine is opened….Israel's Beauty Queen leaves the country, and you insult her because she is an Arab and because she goes to Egypt from time to time?", she asks.
While Rana was taking part in shows in Milan, European newspapers began publishing her photos at prestigious social affairs. Suddenly, she attended fancy dinners with the world's richest people, on yachts in Monte Carlo. "I dated wealthy men, like every modern woman who wants to make contacts to build her life. But, I kept my dignity, otherwise my brothers and husband would have thrown me to the grave."
"At the beginning, I met Tareq Husseini. He was charming, rich…a businessman, millionaire, a cigar importer to Africa…he was from Tunis, but lived in Paris." "…I arrived in Paris. Suddenly, I heard a knock on my door. (Husseini) sent me flowers and chocolate and a note which read 'welcome Rana'. Ten minutes later, his driver arrived with a red box from Cartier. I didn't yet understand much about Cartier; I slowly opened the ribbon and suddenly saw a watch. I started jumping on the bed, singing "pretty woman" – it was my first Cartier. Many were to follow". "We were friends for almost a year, but it didn't work out because he didn't want me to model…but at that point I wasn't yet ready to leave the modeling business. But, till today, we are still very good friends". Rana also dated Thomas Breitling, a member of the well-known family of luxury watch producers and Berna Babouka (Bobo), an Italian millionaire who owns luxurious hotels.
"I used to come out of the suite and smile to hotel workers, but Bobo used to tell me 'why are you smiling at them; you are like my wife here' and I would sit with bitter millionaires, and see the workers, what smiles they have…and Bobo wouldn't let me speak with them". During one of the extravagant dinners Rana attended, she met Tareq Mizayun, who immediately was liked by Rana's family ("He's Arab, understands the mentality"). The son of Mohammed Mizayun, an oil-tycoon from the United Arab Emirates, and a successful businessman in his own right – he is a BMW importer and owns diamond mines. "He fell in love with me immediately and told me – you will be my wife". Faida Raslan says that during the first week, Rana wouldn't let Mizayun come near her. "I can't even say now that Rana loves him. It's like a business. You don't fall in love in one day." Rana, for her part, says, "We were friends for one year before we got married". "I would never marry someone for the money. If I would want to marry a 'real rich' man, I would have married Bobo". "People say I stuck to rich people.
That isn't true…rich men stick to pretty women, and when you are part of a certain social arena, the people you meet come from that same class". "At the beginning, Tareq was madly in love with me. I viewed him as a friend, I saw the good in him, and now I am madly in love with him. …He gives me everything, he gives me freedom". "I was always scared of a wedding, due to my parents divorce. There was plenty of violence in the house. My father once broke a bottle on my mother's face and all her teeth broke and she was filled with blood." "Our wedding was held in a luxury boat on the Nile, with belly dancers, orchestras, darbuka players". "When there will be peace, I will hold a big wedding, because as of now, with an Israeli bride, Tareq can't invite all the Sheikhs and Ministers he knows".
"Just one thing he demanded of me and that is to leave the world of modeling. It was hard for me, but next month I'm going to start studying trading in diamonds, because all those who work in the business are Jews, and I speak the language, so I can help him. "We have beautiful houses all over the world – in Zimbabwe, London, Paris, Monte Carlo, Egypt", she tells the paper. "Sadat's wife is my friend. My husband is a relative of the Sadat family," she mentions.
"When I'm abroad, it hurts me to hear of an attack on a bus, not because of the religion, but because innocent people are killed. To the same extent, it hurts me when homes are destroyed and tanks enter refugee camps. Today I learned to be a Buddhist. I believe everyone is equal". "One day my husband asked me if I mind eating at McDonalds, as if it is less of an honor for me.
I laughed, as there were years that McDonalds was a dream I wasn't able to touch". "The most important thing is not to forget your roots…Today, I welcome rich people on my porch in Monte Carlo, I see millionaires that don't have happiness in life, unlike those who live in Wadi Nisnas".
Rana Raslan's foot, it seems, fit the glass slipper precisely, and all we can do is wish the beautiful princess many more happy and joyful years alongside her prince. It’s a fairytale which came true for one young Arab girl in a chaotic world around her. Hopefully, dreams of many others living in the turbulent Middle-East may one day come true as well.
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