First Miss Trans Israel crowned in beauty pageant

An Israeli Arab was crowned as the very first Miss Trans Israel on May 27, in a beauty pageant that claims it is promoting peace. 

"We can show the world that we are really for peace, this competition is for peace," 70-year-old pageant judge Efrat Tilma said, as quoted by NBC News.

The country, according to the report, is one of the world's most transgender-friendly countries, and it welcomes not only men and women into the military but also transgenders. However, it was not always so. Tilma, having been one of the first openly transgender women in Israel, had to endure suffering back in the '60s.

"It was 15 years after the Holocaust," Tilma narrated. "People were also busy with building Israel. And a problem like transgender ... was not on their agenda."

She recalled having been raped twice and beaten by police because of her gender identity. Following her difficulties, she was later able to fulfill her dream to become "100 percent woman" and was able to marry and build a family.

But while the country is liberal on transgenders, there are still some who are not able to accept it within their families. NBC News spoke to contestant Caroline Khouri, a nightclub belly dancer, who once got beaten by her family and left to starve until the police rescued her. She was able to find a life away from her relatives and found acceptance elsewhere.

"My cousins, my father, my brother-in-law all came and beat me and took me by force and cut my hair, tied me to the bed and left me there for three days with no food," she said. "Here I don't feel Muslim, Jewish, Christian. All of the people are together and the transsexual [people], they love together."

Eileen Ben Zakene, another contestant, ran away from home at 15 but is now accepted by her mother.

Ta'alin Abu Hanna, meanwhile, said that although she is unable to live in Nazareth, a predominantly Arab city where her father and other members of the community reject her, she is still very grateful that she was born in Israel.

"If I had not been in Israel and had been elsewhere — in Palestine or in any other Arab country — I might have been oppressed or I might have been in prison or murdered," Hanna said. "Israel indeed did help me in this ... and I am proud to be an Israeli Arab."

The first Miss Trans Israel title, according to CBS News, went to Hanna, who was crowned in Israel's national theater in Tev Aviv. She will represent the country in Spain this August at the Miss Trans Star International pageant.