The Miss Universe beauty pageant is one of the most recognized and popular pageants in the world.
(In fact, President Donald Trump used to own the Miss Universe Organization, which includes offshoots like Miss USA.)
This year, it’s drawn even more eyes than usual because Nadeen Ayoub is competing — as Miss Palestine.
Even setting aside the fact that some countries don’t recognize “Palestine” as a sovereign state, Ayoub’s inclusion in this year’s festivities has drawn a lot of scrutiny.
But Ayoub wasn’t raising eyebrows because of anything people knew about her. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Ayoub’s personal life had actually been shrouded in mystery as she easily made it through preliminary judging rounds.
That mystery prompted the New York Post to dig in, and what they found was shocking — and likely explains why Ayoub had divulged so little about her past.
Miss Palestine’s connection to convicted terrorist leader revealed during Miss Universe pageant https://t.co/jvnxsO6E0B pic.twitter.com/91k8zhfHSd
— New York Post (@nypost) November 20, 2025
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“The first-ever Miss Palestine contestant in the Miss Universe pageant married the son of Hamas’ most-wanted prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, and even named a child after him,” the New York Post reported Thursday, just a day ahead of the Miss Universe contest.
The outlet explained its methodology: “Years-old screenshots and social media posts obtained by The Post show she took pains to hide that she was once married to Sharaf Barghouti — son of the infamous Fatah leader serving five life sentences in Israel for orchestrating terror attacks that killed five people in 2001 and 2002.”
Marwan has apparently come up in recent hostage negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
Ayoub, who says she is a 27-year-old U.S. and Canadian citizen living in Dubai, allegedly married Sharaf in 2016.
She apparently had a son named “Marwan,” after her incarcerated father-in-law.
The New York Post called Ayoub’s past “a secret life,” and even reached out to family members to confirm the story.
Surprisingly, some of those family members confirmed that Ayoub and Sharaf had gotten married, but “denied knowledge of their current status.”
The outlet also spoke to people who knew her and attended the wedding, further solidifying that Ayoub was, in fact, married to the son of a Hamas terrorist leader.
Ayoub has other connections to Marwan as well. A self-proclaimed fitness instructor, the New York Post dug into her former gym of employment and found that it was owned by the convicted terrorist’s other son.
“It is unclear whether Ayoub is even still present in the baby’s life, as most of her connections to the family have been meticulously scrubbed from the internet,” the New York Post added.
But while Ayoub may have been spending time scrubbing her past from the internet, the internet itself was — perhaps unsurprisingly, given the state of discourse surrounding the Palestinian people — decidedly split on Miss Palestine herself.
Miss Palestine isn’t just wearing a dress, she’s wearing our heritage: a mosque, a church, and olive trees woven into one unbreakable Palestinian story.
And honestly… I loved it so much😍😍 pic.twitter.com/tvnG6SheCc— Nada 7ussini𓂆 (@Nadahu25) November 19, 2025
Meet Miss “Palestine”
Born: Michigan, USA
Father: Egyptian
Mother: Italian
Raised: Canada:
Living: DubaiHer entire identity is a lie, just like that of the entire “Palestinian” people. pic.twitter.com/hZeRsnBnqX
— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) November 20, 2025
The Miss Universe finale will air on Friday, and is available on Telemundo and the Peacock streaming service.
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