Questionable gesture Miss Finland loses her title due to racism scandal
A questionable gesture in a photo has serious consequences for the former Miss Finland. A new beauty queen has already been found.
12.12.2025, 20:34
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The reigning Miss Finland Sarah Dzafce loses her title because of a gesture that was interpreted as racist.
- A photo in which Dzafce narrows her eyes and makes a comment to that effect triggered a shitstorm.
- Tara Lehtonen, previously runner-up, takes over the title.
The reigning Miss Finland Sarah Dzafce loses her title and crown in the wake of a racism scandal. This was announced by the organizers of the beauty contest at a press conference. They do not accept any form of racism or discriminatory behaviour and apologize for the incident, the organization wrote in a statement.
Tara Lehtonen, who came second in the competition, has already been chosen as the new Miss Finland.
Gesture seen as racist
Dzafce was crowned Miss Finland in September. As the radio station Yle reported, she recently got into a shitstorm on social media after a questionable photo of her appeared on an online platform: in the picture, the young woman can be seen squinting her eyes with her fingers. She also wrote a text that, according to Yle, means something like "going out to eat with a Chinese man". The gesture was widely interpreted as a denigration of Asian people.
Dzafce initially defended the gesture by saying that she had merely massaged her temples and widened her eyes due to a "severe headache". At the press conference on Thursday, however, she apologized for the incident, especially to Asian people. "Racism is in no way acceptable," she said.
