Linor Abargil
Encyclopedia
Linor Abargil is an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i beauty pageant contestant who won the Miss World
Miss World 1998
The 48th Miss World pageant was held at the Lake Berjaya Mahé Resort in Mahé Island, Seychelles. 86 delegates from around the world competed for the crown. Ronan Keating then lead singer of Boyzone and MTV's Eden Harel hosted the event...

 beauty pageant in 1998, shortly after being raped. Since then, she has become a global advocate in the fight against sexual violence.

Biography

Just seven weeks before being crowned Miss World, the then 18-year old Abargil was raped at knifepoint by Uri Shlomo, an Israeli citizen working as a travel agent in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy. She made her case public and Shlomo was arrested in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, charged with and found guilty of rape. Abargil called for other women to follow her example.

Abargil married Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n basketball player Šarūnas Jasikevičius
Šarunas Jasikevicius
Šarūnas Jasikevičius is a Lithuanian professional basketball player who plays for Panathinaikos BC. He is a member of the Lithuanian national team, and plays the point guard position.-Early years:...

 in a ceremony near Barcelona, Spain, in July, 2006. They divorced in 2008. In 2008 she announced plans to make a documentary movie about her rape with Oscar-nominated producer Cecilia Peck
Cecilia Peck
Cecilia Peck is a film producer, director, and actress. Cecilia is the daughter of actor Gregory Peck and his second wife Veronique Passani.-Personal life:...

, daughter of actor Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

.

Recognition

In 2005, she was voted the 89th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet
Ynet
Ynet is the most popular Israeli news and general content website. It is owned by the same conglomerate that operates Yediot Ahronot, the country's secondleading daily newspaper...

to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
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