Miss World 2002

 Miss World 2002

 

Miss World 2002, the 52nd Miss World pageant was held on 7 December 2002 at Alexandra Palace, London, United Kingdom. The pageant was initially slated for Abuja, Nigeria but due to conflict in the city of Kaduna arising from a publication of an article in a Lagos based newspaper the pageant was relocated to London, United Kingdom.
A total of 88 contestants from all over the world competed for the crown, several contestants boycotted the pageant in protest for the death sentence by stoning determined by an Islamic Sharia court to Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman accused of adultery. It was the first time that audience participation through text messaging together with the scores of the judges helped in determining the results for the Top 20. Azra Akın from Turkey won the pageant, becoming the first ever representative from her country to be crowned Miss World.

Azra Akin - Turkey
Azra Akin was crowned Miss World 2002 at the annual pageant held on December 7, 2002 at Alexandra Palace in London, England, representing Turkey. She was born on December 8, 1981 in the Dutch town of Almelo, and was raised in the Netherlands by Turkish parents. Akin enjoys ballet and plays the flute. She also won the pageant's Best Gown award. At 17, she was selected Elite Model Look 1998 of Turkey. In 2003 she won a gold medal when she participated in the British reality TV show The Games. Akin has also played the leading role in the long term TV series Yagmur Zamani, minor role as an actress in Turkish TV shows including Teberik Sanssiz and the 2005 feature Istanbul Tales (Anlat Istanbul). She speaks Dutch, Turkish and English. She has been dating model and actor Kivanç Tatlitug since 2002.