Ayten Ahmet

You may remember 16 year old Turkish girl, Ayten Ahmet (now 17) from around this time last year.

She was subject to some idiotic comments made by Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran and Islamic leader Yasser Soliman when she decided to enter the Miss Teen Australia pageant in 2006.  They called her desire to pursue a modeling career a 'slur on Islam' amongst other pointlessly hurtful phrases which attribute far more influence to her than she could possibly have.

Ridiculous as their comments were, they were good for her publicity.  It seems nobody has heard anything about her since she was dropped from the competition after making it into the top 26, which is a real shame as she seemed like a bright young woman with plenty of support from her parents.

So I ask:

Whatever happened to Ayten Ahmet?

Did anyone end up signing her as a model?  Were they put off by the bad press?  I would have thought that (particularly) Turkish business owners would gladly snap her up to be the face of their promotional campaign, since most of the world's Muslims are not fundies, you'd think that'd generate some sales as well as having a positive effect on Muslim girls who might otherwise be too afraid to follow their hearts for fear of similar baseless persecution.  Sure that would politicise their advertising a little, but isn't that the trick to getting free airtime?

Everyone googles themselves these days, so I hope Ayten (or indeed someone else with a clue) digs this up at some point and fills us in on how she's doing.  I would hate to think that some crusty old misogynists buried her aspirations.