Eritrea has officially joined the Miss World competition, marking the country’s first-ever participation in the international pageant’s 75-year history. Snit Habteab, a neuroscientist, educator and disability rights advocate, is representing the East African nation at the event in Vietnam. Habteab was born and raised in Asmara and holds a degree in Neuroscience from George Mason University in Virginia, USA. The country gained independence from Ethiopia after a 30-year-long battle fought between the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front and the Ethiopian Army. In 1962, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia annexed Eritrea after annulling its parliament.