A Palestinian beauty queen will for the first time compete in the Miss Universe pageant later this year, the competition has announced.

Nadeen Ayoub, 27, who was chosen as Miss Palestine in a 2022 competition, will participate in the event in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 21.

“We welcome Ms. Ayoub to represent Palestine alongside global delegates, celebrating diversity and women’s empowerment,” the Miss Universe Organization told CNN on Monday.

“Ms. Ayoub, an accomplished advocate and model from Palestine, embodies the resilience and determination that define our platform,” it said.

On Instagram, Ayoub said she was “honored” to take part. “Today, I step onto the Miss Universe stage not just with a title—but with a truth,” she said. “As Palestine endures heartbreak — especially in Gaza — I carry the voice of a people who refuse to be silenced.

“I represent every Palestinian woman and child whose strength the world needs to see,” she stated. “We are more than our suffering — we are resilience, hope, and the heartbeat of a homeland that lives on through us.”

Speaking to the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned publication The National, Ayoub said: “There hasn’t been another Miss Palestine since 2022 because of the genocide. After Miss Earth, I was supposed go to Miss Universe. But I postponed it because I did not want to go when genocide was happening. I wanted to focus more on staying behind the scenes because the spotlight was supposed to be on the people in Palestine who are suffering, rather than me.”

Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of carrying out genocide or other war crimes in its war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, and has pointed as evidence to efforts to avoid civilian casualties and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip.