JERUSALEM, March 9 A young Druze woman who decided to compete in the Miss Israel Pageant now fears for her life.
Police in Israel say that two uncles and some other men in the village where Doaa Fares lives with her parents planned to kill her. She withdrew from the pageant, went into hiding and now remains at home, afraid even to answer the telephone.
My life is much more important than a contest, but it's very difficult for me to give up my dream, she told The Times of London. Fares, who changed her name to Angelina for the pageant, was the first Druze woman to enter. The Druze, who practice what is believed to be a mixture of Muslim, Jewish and Christian practices, are a secretive religious group who do not accept converts.
While Fares' parents backed her decision to enter the pageant, she discovered when she began appearing in ads that others did not. Police investigators say that her uncles and the other men hired two hitmen to kill Fares.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
