Miss World 2002

Miss World 2002
Miss World 2002 Titlecard
Date	7 December 2002
Presenters	Sean Kanan,Claire Elizabeth Smith
Entertainment	Chayanne, BBMak
Venue	Alexandra Palace, London, UK
Broadcaster	E!, Channel 5
Entrants	88
Placements	20
Debuts	Algeria, Vietnam
Withdrawals	Austria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Iceland, Guatemala, Korea, Hawaii, Malawi, Mauritius, Sri Lanka St. Maarten, Switzerland.
Returns	Bahamas, Kazakhstan, Swaziland.
Winner	Azra Akın  Turkey
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Miss World 2002, the 52nd edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 7 December 2002 at the Alexandra Palace in London, UK. It was initially intended to be staged in Abuja, Nigeria, but due to religious riots in the nearby city of Kaduna the pageant was relocated to London.

A total of 110 contestants from all over the world were initially invited to compete for the crown, but 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, making a total of 88 girls competing for the crown. 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. She was crowned by Agbani Darego of Nigeria. Show organizers stated that the event had a global viewership of over 2 billion people, and that it was broadcast in 137 countries.

88 contestants participated in Miss World 2002.

Also boycotting but never invited:

In the year leading up the finals in Nigeria, several European title holders lobbied their governments and the EU parliament to support Amina's cause. A number of contestants followed the lead of Kathrine Sørland of Norway in boycotting the contest (despite the controversy Sørland went on to become a semi-finalist in both the Miss World and Miss Universe contest), while others such as Costa Rica were instructed by their national governments and parliaments not to attend the contest. Among the other boycotting nations were Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Panama, Belgium and Kenya. There was further controversy over the possibly suspended participation of France and South Africa, which may or may not have been due to the boycott. For her part, Lawal asked that contestants not suspend their participation in the contest, saying that it was for the good of her country and that they could, as the representative of Sweden had earlier remarked, make a much stronger case for her on the ground in Nigeria.