After being stranded for three weeks at Manila airport, Iranian beauty queen Bahareh Zare Bahari has finally been granted political asylum by the government of the Philippines, an official said on Nov. 8.
The justice department ordered her to report to the Bureau of Immigration to obtain her visa and registration certificate.
“If the refugee has no passport or valid passport, visa stamping is not required,” the document said. The document also recommends that a travel document be issued and work permit requirements be waived, according to The Guardian.
Bahari left Iran in 2014 to study dentistry in the Philippines and had been residing there since.
But when she came back to the Philippines from a trip to Dubai on Oct. 17, she was denied entry into the country due to an Iranian warrant for her arrest.
According to The Guardian, international police agency Interpol had issued a worldwide request to arrest Bahari, known as a “red notice.”
But Bahari believes the Iranian regime requested the red notice to try and silence her political voice.
When she represented Iran at the Miss Intercontinental beauty pageant in Manila last year, she displayed public support for the former crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi.
She used an image of Pahlavi and the flag of the former Iranian monarchy during the competition on stage to “try and be the voice” of her people.
“My wish is that my country will reach to freedom and equality,” Bahari said in her profile at the Miss Intercontinental pageant website.
According to Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southeast Asia, Bahari said she could face “arrest, torture, and other ill-treatment, and unfair trial and imprisonment” if she is sent back to Iran. He described her as “a vocal critic of the Iranian authorities and a public opponent of forced veiling.”