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Dilniya Kamusi, an Iranian Kurdish actress, has recently expressed her desire to take part in Miss Kurdistan Pageant Show in 2013. She told Kurdish media outlets that she is getting ready to participate in the beauty pageant, not because she wants to win the crown, but because she wants to take part in this 'new cultural phenomenon'. She said 'I do believe that I am pretty qualified to partake in the coming beauty pageant, which will be most probably held in the capital of Erbil".

In 2012, the first Miss Kurdistan pageant show was held on June 28 in Rotana Hotel. There were twelve participants from Southern Kurdistan, and the show attracted nationwide attention. The competition was organized by a Lebanese company, and attended by diplomats, singers, actors as well as governmental officials. Shene Aziz Ako, an 18-year-old from the city of Raniya, was the winner.

This was not the first pageant show in Kurdistan because in 1974 there were similar local pageant shows within the city. And in the 1970s, Miss Iran was a Kurdish woman from Kermanshah. Therefore, pageant shows are not a new cultural phenomenon, but rather 'Miss Kurdistan' pageant show is new, which ideally represents women from different parts of Kurdistan.

Kamusi was born in 1992 in the Iranian Kurdish city of Bokan. She is now living in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region's second largest city of Sulaimaniyah. She has up to now participated in 10 Kurdish and Persian movies, and won several cinema awards as the best actress.

In 2012, Miss Kurdistan Pageant show was consistent with Kurdish culture and tradition because the women wore traditional Kurdish clothing. The attire which they wore were different from Western countries where the participants tend to wear Bikinis or revealing clothes. Kurdistan Region is still conservative, and women consequently face restrictions. Although, the restrictions are not similar to the rest of Iraq where women are socially ostracized for not veiling, or in some instances where they are sexually harassed on the street if they don't wear the socially appropriated attire. In Kurdistan, the restrictions which exist, and are continuing to ease, are on a different level. At times it includes the hours in which young girls go out or the social activities that they are allowed to partake in.