Rima Fakih

Rima Fakih (Arabic: ريما فقيه‎) (born September 22, 1985) is a Lebanese-American actress, model, professional wrestler and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 2010. She represented the state of Michigan in the national pageant, having previously won the 2010 Miss Michigan USA pageant. Fakih is married to music executive, Wassim "Sal" Slaiby and the couple has three children.

Rima Fakih
ريما فقيه
Rima Fakih at the 2010 WWE Tribute To The Troops show in Fort Hood, Texas.
Born (1985-09-22) September 22, 1985
Srifa, South Governorate, Lebanon
Alma materUniversity of Michigan, Dearborn
OccupationFormer Miss USA | National Director
2018 — (current)
Home townDearborn, Michigan, U.S.
Height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
TitleMiss Michigan USA 2010
Miss USA 2010
Spouse(s)
Children3
Beauty pageant titleholder
Hair colorBlack
Eye colorBrown
Major
competition(s)		Miss Lebanon Emigrant 2008
(2nd Runner-Up)
Miss Michigan USA 2010
(Winner)
Miss USA 2010
(Winner)
Miss Universe 2010
(Unplaced)
WebsiteOfficial website

In 2018, Fakih became the National Director of Miss Universe Lebanon, the national beauty pageant of Lebanon. She has featured in 100 Most Powerful Women in Arab list in 2011, the same year in which she was a contestant in WWE Tough Enough. In February 2020, she was named ambassador for the year 2020 for The Children’s Cancer Center in Lebanon (CCCL). Fakih was presented the key to Dearborn, Michigan by the city's mayor John B. O'Reilly Jr. in 2010.

Early life

Fakih was born in Srifa, a small city in the Jabal Amel region of Southern Lebanon, to a Shi'a Muslim family. She is the daughter of Hussein and Nadia Fakih, and has four siblings, brothers Rabih and Rami,[1] and sisters Rana and Rouba. Rima and her three elder siblings were born in Lebanon, but the youngest, Rami was born in New York.

As a young child she lived in the village of Souk El Gharb in Mount Lebanon, and attended St. Rita's, a Catholic school near Beirut.[1][2]

Immigration to the United States

In 1993, her parents, Hussein and Nadia Fakih, moved their family to New York in order to escape the effects of the Lebanese Civil War.[3]

Fakih attended I.S. 145, Jackson Heights, Queens, New York and St. John's Preparatory School, Astoria, Queens.[4] Her father ran a restaurant in Manhattan.[3] In New York, Fakih's family felt they were subjected to threats and vandalism based on events in the Middle East. Business at her father's restaurant reportedly declined following the September 11, 2001, attacks.[3]

In 2003, her family moved to the large Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan.[1][3][5][6]

Fakih resided in Dearborn.[7] She graduated from Henry Ford Community College and went on to earn degrees in economics and business management from the University of Michigan–Dearborn, and announced she planned to attend law school after her year-long reign.[6][8] Prior to winning the Miss USA title, she worked as a sales associate at the Detroit Medical Center, developing and recruiting in the Arab American community.[9]

Pageants

Fakih competed in her first pageant when she was nineteen, placing fourth runner-up at Miss Wayne County, a preliminary pageant for Miss Michigan in the Miss America system. She also competed in three smaller international pageants.[10]

Miss Lebanon Emigrant

In 2008, Fakih was selected to represent Michigan in the Miss Lebanon Emigrant competition.[3] The event is part of the Miss Lebanon pageant, and is open to young women who are Lebanese or of Lebanese origin, living in countries of the overseas Lebanese community.[11] She placed third in the contest, held August 13 in Batroun, Lebanon, finishing behind Carina El Kaddissi of Brazil and Jessica Kahawaty of Australia.[12]

Miss USA
Rima Fakih at the 2010 WWE Tribute To The Troops show in Fort Hood, Texas

Fakih won the Miss Michigan USA pageant on September 19, 2009 at the McMorran Place Theater, Port Huron, Michigan. In May 2010 she represented Michigan at the Miss USA 2010 pageant held at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. She won the Miss USA title on May 16, 2010, beating out first runner-up Morgan Woolard of Oklahoma and Samantha Casey of Virginia, breaking a 5-year streak of Southern states winning and becoming the first Miss Michigan USA to win the national title since Kenya Moore in 1993.[4]

Fakih is widely believed to be the first Lebanese American, the first Arab American and the first Muslim to win the Miss USA title; however, pageant officials have stated their records are not detailed enough to confirm this claim.[13] The first Michigan delegate to win the Miss USA title, Carole Gist, became the first African-American Miss USA in 1990.

During and after the Miss USA pageant, Fakih's religious and ethnic identity became the subject of widespread discussion. On the subject of identity, she was quoted as saying "I'd like to say I'm American first, and I am an Arab-American, I am Lebanese-American, and I am Muslim-American."[14]

Rima Fakih with her Miss USA sash (2011)

Many Arab Americans celebrated Fakih's victory,[5] but some Muslims felt she did not properly represent their religion.

Shia scholar Ghazal Omid wrote "To say that she is a Muslim is inaccurate. No Muslim woman can call herself a ... Muslim and be on stage with her bikini".[15] Responding to the issue in interviews, Fakih said she and her family are Muslims and respect the religion, but they may not be as strict as many people and do not define themselves by their religion; they view themselves as more "spiritual" than "religious" and appreciate all religions.[16][17]

Her religion and role in the pageant were further put under the microscope two weeks after being crowned, when photos surfaced of Fakih participating in a "Stripper 101" contest hosted by Detroit radio morning show Mojo in the Morning.[18][19]

On the subject of the planned Park51 Islamic community center in New York, Fakih stated, "I totally agree with President Obama with the statement on the constitutional rights of freedom of religion. [But] it shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion."[20]

Miss Universe

As the holder of the Miss USA title, Fakih represented the United States in the 2010 Miss Universe pageant, held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on August 23. She failed to place in the semi-finals.[21] This made her the first representative of her country since 2002's Shauntay Hinton to not place at the pageant.[22]

Other media
Rima Fakih on WrestleMania Axxess (2012)

Fakih appeared as a guest star on the November 29, 2010, edition of WWE Raw, where she crowned Sheamus, the winner of the King of the Ring tournament. In December 2010 at WWE Tribute to the Troops, she served as the ring announcer for the matches. She later competed on WWE Tough Enough on USA and was eliminated in week four.[23]

Due to conflicting schedules with promotional events for Miss USA 2011, Fakih was the only contestant not to appear on the live final episode. In 2012, she participated in Fox's dating game show The Choice.[24]

She is listed number 86 on AskMen.com's top 99 women 2011 edition.[25] On May 24, 2011, The Roots performed a freestyle song about her during her appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. She also appears in the movie Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, which premiered on October 7, 2011. Fakih revealed that she is receiving wrestling training.[26] In 2015, she participated in Netflix's The Apartment season 4, where she became the runner-up behind actress/model/jewelry Designer - Xiao Wang.[27]

Awards and recognition

After her coronation as Miss USA in 2010, Fakih was among the guests at the American Chamber of Commerce conference in Cairo alongside former US President Bill Clinton.[28] She was named the ambassador for The Children’s Cancer Center in Lebanon (CCCL) in February 2020.[29] In January 2010, Fakih received the key to Dearborn which was presented by Mayor John B. O'Reilly Jr. [30][31]

Personal life

In April 2016, Fakih converted to Maronite Christianity, in Bkerké, the see of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate, northeast of Beirut, before her marriage to Lebanese-Canadian music producer Wassim "Sal" Slaiby also known as Sal.[32] Slaiby manages Canadian artist The Weeknd, who went to Lebanon specifically to commemorate the wedding, which took place in the church of Bkerké, the Maronite Patriarchate, on May 15, 2016. The couple has three children, Rima Jr, Joseph (Sal Jr) and Amira.

In December 2011, Fakih was arrested on charges of misdemeanor drunk driving.[33]

See also

References
  1. "Miss USA hails from powerful Shiite family". msnbc.com. Associated Press. May 17, 2010. Archived from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  2. Ghaddar, Hanin (May 21, 2010). "The Not-So-Radical Roots of Miss USA". Foreign Policy. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  3. AlHajal, Khalil (July 26, 2008). "Local student to represent Michigan in Miss Lebanon Emigrant contest". The Arab American News. Dearborn, Michigan: ProQuest. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
  4. "Miss Michigan USA 2010 – Rima Fakih bio". Miss Michigan USA. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  5. Noveck, Jocelyn (May 17, 2010). "Arab-Americans delight in Miss USA victory". Daily News. New York. Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 15, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2010. (Archive)
  6. Hutchinson, Bill (May 16, 2010). "Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010 winner: Lebanon-born Miss Michigan is first Arab-American to take crown". Daily News. New York. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  7. David, Ameera (September 2009). "Arab American Rima Fakih Wins Miss Michigan USA". Arab Detroit. Archived from the original on May 5, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  8. Rempala, Jodi (May 28, 2010). "Miss USA Rima Fakih: Living a dream". Press & Guide. Dearborn, Michigan: 21st Century Newspapers. Retrieved July 6, 2010.
  9. Meyer, Nick (November 20, 2009). "Arab American seeks Miss USA crown after capturing Miss Michigan title". The Arab American News. Dearborn, Michigan. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  10. Dybis, Karen (March 17, 2010). "Q&A: Miss Michigan USA Rima Fakih on Serving Others". The Detroit Blog. Time. Archived from the original on May 24, 2010. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  11. "Miss Lebanon Emigrant". World Lebanese Cultural Union. March 21, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
  12. "Miss Lebanon lists – Miss Emigrant". Miss Lebanon. Archived from the original on May 21, 2010. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
    • "Miss Lebanon Michigan - USA" (in Arabic). World Lebanese Cultural Union. July 17, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2010. Elected a Miss 'Rima Fakih' the amount of twenty-two-year-old Miss Lebanon Michigan in the United States. Ms. Rima will participate in the ceremony, the election of Miss Lebanon Emigrant in 2008, which will be next on August 13…
    • "Carina Kaddissi elected as the Miss Lebanon Emigrant for 2008" (in Arabic). World Lebanese Cultural Union. August 14, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2010. Been in the resort, "[Batroun] Village Club" in Al-elected Miss Lebanon Emigrant in 2008 under the auspices of Minister of Tourism, lawyer Eli Maroni, where she won the Miss Lebanon in Brazil Karina Saints won the Queen and received the crown of the Queen's former Grace Bejjani, dissolved Miss Lebanon Australia Jessica Khuati runner first, and Miss Lebanon in the state of Michigan in the United States Rima Fakih, the runner-seconds…(translation by Google Translate, "Batroun" by Bing Translator)
  13. Warikoo, Niraj (May 16, 2010). "Dearborn's Miss Michigan wins Miss USA pageant". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
  14. Duke, Alan (May 21, 2010). "Miss USA says 'American' is her preferred label". This Just In. CNN. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  15. Nasr, Octavia (May 20, 2010). "Is Miss USA a Muslim trailblazer?". This Just In. CNN. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  16. Byrd, David (May 21, 2010). "Arab American Miss USA at Center of Controversy" (Text & Flash audio [11:10]). Voice of America. 2:35–3:00. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  17. Gilgoff, Dan (May 21, 2010). "Crash course in Islam from Miss USA". Belief Blog. CNN. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  18. "New Miss USA Once Won Pole Dancing Contest". ABC News. August 20, 2010.
  19. "Miss USA to Behar: Pole-dancing pictures were all in fun" (Text & Flash Video [5:33]). The Joy Behar Show. CNN. May 20, 2010. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  20. "Miss USA Weighs in on Mosque Controversy". Inside Edition. August 20, 2010. Archived from the original on August 21, 2010.
  21. Aaron Foley (August 24, 2010). "Miss USA Rima Fakih eliminated from Miss Universe pageant; Miss Mexico wins". Michigan Live. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  22. Legaspi, Charlize (December 15, 2018). "Shauntay Hinton (2002) and Rima Fakih (2010), the last two Misses USA who didn't make it to the finals at Miss Universe. Will the 8-year cycle be a curse to 2018's controversial Sarah Rose Summers?". Twitter. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  23. Gorman, Bill (February 17, 2011). "Miss USA To Be A Contestant On USA's Upcoming 'WWE Tough Enough'". Zap2it.com. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
  24. Hibberd, James (May 8, 2012). "Fox's 'The Choice' cast revealed! Joe Jonas, Dean Cain, The Situation, many more – EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  25. "Rima Fakih – Top 99 Women". AskMen. August 14, 2012. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  26. "Rima Fakih Not Giving Up On Being A WWE Diva". WrestlingInc.com. September 10, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  27. Slaiby Fakih, Rima (January 25, 2015). "The Apartment Celebrity Edition is airing this Sunday Jan 25th on @starworldasia watch& TAG me #AP4Rima @TheApartmentTV". Twitter. Retrieved June 14, 2020. line feed character in |title= at position 105 (help)
  28. "Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010" (PDF). Miss Universe. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  29. ago, Tamara Kabboul·Latest News·3 months ago·Last updated:2 months (2020-02-14). "Rima Fakih Appointed 2020 Ambassador of Children Cancer Center in Lebanon". The961. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  30. Press, The Associated (2010-07-02). "Miss USA Rima Fakih gets key to city in Dearborn hometown". mlive. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  31. "City of Dearborn". www.cityofdearborn.org. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  32. "First Muslim Miss USA Rima Fakih converts to Christianity". Fox News. May 6, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  33. "Former Miss USA Rima Fakih arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, police say". cbsnews.com. December 5, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Kristen Dalton		 Miss USA
2010		 Succeeded by
Alyssa Campanella
Preceded by
Lindsey Tycholiz		 Miss Michigan USA
2010		 Succeeded by
Channing Pierce
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