Hammasa Kohistani

Hammasa Kohistani (born 19 December 1985) is a British model of Afghan descent. She became the first Muslim beauty contestant to be crowned Miss England in 2005. She was crowned at the age of 18, following a two-day competition at Liverpool's Olympia Theatre on 3 September 2005, and was chosen from 40 contestants. Shei was born in 1987 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, when it was part of the USSR to Afghan parents who moved there as refugees. During the Soviet-Afghan War her parents fled to what was then the Uzbek SSR in the Soviet Union. She and her parents returned to Kabul, Afghanistan, but in 1996 they escaped from there when the Taliban took control of the city. They eventually made it to the United Kingdom and settled in Southall, in West London, where her father Kushal set up a fast food restaurant. Kohistani studied in London and attended Lampton School in Hounslow and was a student at Uxbridge College.