Beirut - (AFP) - On Sunday evening, Yasmina Zeitoun won the title of Miss Lebanon for the year 2022, after a competition that was held for the first time in four years.

Zaytoun (20 years), who is from the town of Kfar Shuba in the south of the country, won the title that Miss Lebanon 2018 Maya Reaidy retained for four years after the competition could not be held during the last three years, beginning due to the popular protests in October 2019, then The COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis in the country.

The elected queen, who studies journalism, is 167 centimeters tall and weighs 51 kilograms, will receive a prize of $100,000. She will also represent Lebanon in the Miss World and Miss Universe competitions.

Maya Abu Al-Hassan was the first runner-up, Jacinta Rashed the second runner-up, Lara Hrawi the third runner-up, while the Khalasiya Dalal Hoballah came the fourth runner-up.

Seventeen participants competed to win the title of the competition sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism under the slogan "We miss Lebanon", and was broadcast by "LBCI" channel directly from the "Forum de Beirut" hall.

The jury consisted of musician Michel Fadel, “influencer” on social networks Karen Wazen, general director of “An-Nahar” newspaper and “An-Nahar Al-Arabi” website, Nayla Tueni, producer Mohamed Yahya, director of the Caracalla Theater Ivan Caracalla, presenter Hilda Khalifa, and Miss Lebanon for the year 1993, Samaya Chadrawi, and the current Miss World, Poland, Karolina Bilawska, who was replaced by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Organizing Body of the Miss World contest, Julia Morley, due to a health problem.

The contestants passed first in bathing suits, and then swayed in front of the audience and the jury in evening dresses signed by the Lebanese designer Georges Hobeika.

The jury then selected nine contestants, and its members asked them various questions.

After that, five participants qualified for the final stage, and they were asked a unified question about their opinion of the Ministry of Tourism’s campaign to promote the summer season in Lebanon and the region that they choose to highlight in this context.

The Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram revived the party, which included dancing paintings, and it was presented by the Lebanese presenter and actress, Aimee Sayah.

The return of this aesthetic competition, which began during the French Mandate of Lebanon more than nine decades ago and has been scheduled annually since the sixties, is symbolic in light of the stifling economic crisis that the country has been going through for nearly three years, during which the majority of the Lebanese have become below the poverty line.

The repercussions of the multiple crisis were evident in the statements of the contestants during the party, as a number of them touched on various problems experienced by the Lebanese, including youth emigration, the scarcity of medicines, and the strict restrictions on bank withdrawals.