Published by Osasere Edomwonyi Ikpoba
On the glittering stage of the 75th Miss World final in Nha Trang, Vietnam, Ruth Yirgalem Weldesilasie stood as Ethiopia's representative—not as a symbol of glamour, but as a woman carrying an unimaginable weight. Just weeks before she was due to leave for the competition, her 29-year-old elder sister, Kidusan Yirgalem Weldesilasie, was kidnapped for ransom and later discovered dead, her remains split between two suitcases. Instead of retreating into grief, the 25-year-old chose to mount the world stage, vowing to "change my pain to my purpose".
"Imagine the person that you care for most has a price one day—you're being asked for a price," Ruth told AFP from Nha Trang, her voice carrying the rawness of a wound still fresh. "It was hard, very hard." The kidnapping shattered what should have been a moment of triumph. As 111 contestants gathered for the pageant finale, Ruth was mourning a sister she had promised to protect. As a child, her family would tell her: "You are the one for your sister. You are the one who is going to protect her". That promise now fuels her presence on the global stage.
The brutality of the crime has compounded the tragedy. According to local media reports, Ruth's ex-boyfriend and her sister's partner are among 10 arrested suspects. The investigation remains ongoing, but the case has already exposed the pervasive violence against women in Ethiopia's deeply patriarchal society. Ruth's sister, a fashion designer whom she had lovingly nursed through years of illness, was killed in a violent attack just days before Ruth was due to depart for Vietnam. The loss was compounded by the fact that she had already lost her mother during childhood and was raised by her devoted father.
Yet Ruth refused to let grief consume her. "I've been wanting to do this for a lifetime," she said. Ahead of her departure, she thought to herself that while she could not bring her sister back, "if I go, there are things that I will do". That resolve carried her to Vietnam, where she used her platform to highlight issues far beyond the pageant's theatrical performances. Her social impact projects focus on children's mental wellbeing and maternal health. "When you heal a woman, you give her dignity back. You give her another life," she said.
But Ruth's advocacy extends beyond her personal projects. Travelling through Ethiopia, she has witnessed a landscape of systemic abuse. United Nations data shows that nearly 20 million women in the country of 130 million people were married or in a union before the age of 18. Female genital mutilation rates, though declining, remain nearly 50 per cent for women between the ages of 15 and 49. A petition calling on the Ethiopian government to declare violence against women a "national crisis" has been signed by nearly 170,000 people. Decades of instability and a 2020-2022 war in the country's north have worsened the lives of legions of women. "The root cause of all the problems is the same: women treated as objects," Ruth said.
When the kidnappers called to demand a ransom for her sister, that dehumanisation became painfully personal. "Imagine the person that you care for most has a price one day," she said. That moment crystallised her mission: to show that women's lives cannot be commodified, that their worth cannot be measured in ransom notes or cultural justifications.
Ruth's decision to compete was counterintuitive, a battle against her emotional instincts. "I know when I go back home tomorrow, I'm going to sit on my couch and try to process everything and cry my eyes out," she admitted. But she is motivated by the memory of her sister and the larger sisterhood of women she now represents. "I want women to think beyond what they are going through," she said. "I want to show the world that even when the world is being hard on you, you can also make it".
Beyond her personal tragedy, Ruth has emerged as a remarkable cultural ambassador. During the Head-to-Head Challenge in Vietnam, she delivered a powerful presentation introducing Ethiopia as the cradle of humankind, the land of 13 months of sunshine, the birthplace of coffee, and a nation guided by its own unique calendar. Wearing vibrant traditional attire, she showcased the country's artistic traditions, intricate craftsmanship, and rich cultural diversity. Her appearance aligned with the event's long-standing "Beauty with a Purpose" ethos, shifting the focus from exterior elegance to community impact and humanitarian advocacy. Transforming her pain into purpose, she launched her advocacy initiative, "The Silent Struggle," which works to protect abused children and educate parents on youth mental health awareness. In addition, she highlighted her ongoing humanitarian collaboration with the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Center to support Ethiopian mothers suffering from childbirth injuries.
On Saturday night, as the 75th Miss World crown was awarded, Ruth Yirgalem Weldesilasie did not win the title. But she achieved something perhaps more enduring: she turned a stage of glamour into a pulpit for justice, carrying her sister's memory not as a burden, but as a banner. In doing so, she reminded the world that behind every statistic on gender-based violence is a face, a family, and a story that demands to be told. "I'm going to change my pain to my purpose," she had promised. In Nha Trang, she kept that promise.
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