I have no idea if this is why she lost the contest - who knows, maybe the others really were better than her. But it's pretty obvious from one of the judge's comments that she was marked low by that judge at least for picking an "inappropriate topic" to speak about. And there is one report that one of the judges walked out, while another stopped marking during her speech, although this is denied by the organizers.
(h/t rural - Francesca, who posted this on Facebook)
Good for Hannah and her parents. Hannah has always been a very, very interesting kid. But good lord, little Hannah is 15. God I'm getting old!
Youth like Hannah give me hope for the future. In a good but strange way, local people will probably learn more about FGM now than if she had won. The world works in mysterious ways.
Hey, you know her! That's cool!
And yeah - experiences like this can actually be positive, when your community rallies around you and encourages you when you do something courageous and interesting and right.
This is the Letter to the editor that drew the community's attention to what happened.
A friend of mine who works with Hannah's dad had this to say
"The people who spoke to the judges after the speech, were apparently told that the speech was not even given a mark. Apparently one of the judges said that "good catholic girls do not use the word vagina in public".
She did have good school support, and we've been doing the VAGINA thing on Facebook.
I only found out, from the above posted article, who the young girl is, and I'm not at all surprised. I worked with her farther in the community and the family is wonderful, and she'll know she's well supported.
I don't think this is over yet.
I am sure like every teenager Hannah and her family have their moments, but is clear the acorn didn't fall far from the tree. Her mother is someone I would never, ever pick a fight with.
As for the quote from the judge Francesca supplied about the word vagina
That is about the stupidest thing I have heard in some time. And I can only get AM stations in my truck, which means a lot of talk radio so I have heard a great deal of stupid things with which to compare it. Mind-numbing stupid.
