VITERBO – A disabled contestant in the Miss Italia beauty contest has hit back at cyber bullies who have described her as “disgusting”.

“You’re disgusting, go back home and don’t make the Italians pity you because you are crippled,” wrote one woman about 18-year-old Chiara Bordi, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano.

 The teenager from Tarquinia, Viterbo retaliated in a post on her Instagram profile, “I am very sorry for her because I may be missing a foot, but she is missing a brain and heart.” 

 “The only thing that seems absurd to me,” the teenager who lost her leg in a motorbike accident five years ago added, “is having to read certain criticism from a fully grown adult and me, being here at 18 years of age, having to justify it.”

 The insults came after Chiara’s sister posted a photograph asking Tarquinia locals to support her in the competition.

 A woman wrote they would vote for her “just because she was crippled”.  

 In her retort, the young contestant wrote it saddened her that the other woman saw the post as a message of “vote for me because I am crippled” rather than “look at me, I am missing a foot but I’m not afraid to show myself to the world”.

 Patron of Miss Italy Patrizia Mirigliani said, “I find it unacceptable to humiliate a girl who with great courage and having endured enormous sacrifices, is trying to carve her place in the world despite the tragedy that has struck her.

 “We are living in dark times where instead of feeling ashamed, those who denigrate feel legitimized,” said Ms Mirigliani in a show of solidarity for the girl.

 In her speech, Chiara explained her motivation to participate in the most important beauty contest in Italy was the desire to “show narrow-minded people (in fact) that a girl without a limb can compete on the same level, and that diversity is not limiting.” 

 cc