A north-east businesswoman has won a national beauty pageant and will now represent Scotland on the world stage.
Madiha Iqbal defeated 36 other women in the battle for the title of Miss Progress Scotland at a UK-wide contest in Leicester.
The 26-year-old, a former pupil of Cults Academy in Aberdeen, will now travel to Italy in May to take part in the international version of the event.
Billed as a modern and forward-thinking take on traditional beauty pageants, Miss Progress was set up to celebrate not only a contestants’ physical beauty, but also their personalities and charitable contributions to their communities.
As well as measuring contestants on their good deeds, Miss Progress also lacks a feature synonymous with traditional beauty contests, a bikini round, which Ms Iqbal is not in favour of because of her cultural background.
Ms Iqbal, who runs her own hair and beauty salon in Aberdeen, is now looking forward to her trip to Italy.
She said: “It’s an international stage that I’ll be on now, so it’s a bit nerve-wracking because I’ll be competing with talented, experienced women from all over the world.
“The competition was amazing, it was lovely meeting all the contestants from all over the UK, I’ve never done a pageant this big before so it was a wonderful experience.
“I was number 36 out of the 36 girls that took part, so I think being last actually helped me out a bit.
“If I was in the first five going on stage I wouldn’t have enough time to get ready and prepare, so the extra time let me make sure I was completely ready for it.”
To be crowned Miss Progress Scotland, Ms Iqbal had to convince the judges that she contributed to her community, which she succeeded at by detailing her charitable work in Aberdeen which has resulted in more than £2,000 being raised for Macmillan Cancer Care.
Ms Iqbal said: “It’s really exciting, and I can’t wait to represent Scotland in Italy. All I need to do now is secure some sponsorship and I can make the trip.
“I just hope I do Scotland proud. I love Scotland, it’s my home country and to be able to represent it at the finals is incredible.”