InstagramUPDATE: Nawat Itsaragrisil, President of Miss Grand International Organization, has released the following statement to E! News: "Since the start of the pageant, she is one of the delegate who shown herself to be interesting and great personality and all my staffs love to work with her and she made great impression to the team. It is common that the contestants and staffs they exchange the opinion and asked for comments of how to improve their performance because this is beauty pageant and everyone wants to improve their chance in order to win the title."
He adds, "Same like Miss Grand Iceland 2016, she asked some questions and suggestions from our staffs which they've replied according to what they think, she may be a little bit fat and they recommended her, in good way, to try to lose some weight in order to improve her chance to win. This is normal process for the three weeks during the pageant, everyone should show their improvement. Similarly the staffs give the same advice for others who asked them what should they do to improve in order to win which each of them would get different advice and no one have any problems and are trying their own way to improve."
Itsaragrisil continues, "There was an incident that she shows her photos from her previous international pageant to me which she looks slimmer and more beautiful which I do not understand the purpose as what we are looking in the competition is the present not what she used to look like. Finally she posted one of her personal Snapchat on her own words in her own language and her own understanding. After that we had a chat with her together with my Vice President Miss Teresa Chaivisut she said what the social media feedback was not what she actually said and we make understanding which she released another Snapchat to clarify and it is all seems fine. Next day I was reported that she moved out since last night without informing anyone, her roommate told us that she left a letter which addressed to me at the reception which she showed to the media.
"One of our conditions of the pageant for security reasons we do not allow anyone to leave the hotel without our acknowledgement, she seems to have her own imagination and do whatever she pleased without obeying any rules and regulations which she read and signed accepting before entering the pageant. We were worried about her and then we contacted her National Director who's found out that she moved to stay with her friend. I'm a bid surprised that all the sudden she has a friend here. Afterwards she continue to give the news to the media.
"For Miss Grand International, the qualification of the winner are beauty, personality and brain and ready to take on the duty to enhance our advocacy for the Stop The War and Violence campaign and perform her duty for example in refugee camps. Our organization have highest standard in order to select the winner. The winner has to be good listener, speaker, good thinking and are willing to give rather than take from others as well as be reasonable with good manner."
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Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir, Miss Iceland 2015, will not be participating in the Miss Grand International beauty pageant.
According to the Iceland Monitor, the 20-year-old contestant was told by the owner of the pageant that she needed to lose weight before Tuesday's competition.
A spokesperson for Nawat Itsaragrisil, the founder and owner of Miss Grand International, reportedly told Arna Ýr, "Stop eating breakfast, eat just salad for lunch and drink water every evening until the contest." The spokesperson reportedly told Miss Iceland that Mr. Itsaragrisil "is telling you this because he likes you and wants you to do well in the contest."
Arna Ýr responded by withdrawing herself from the pageant. "If the owner of the contest really wants me to lose weight and doesn't like me the way I am, then he doesn't deserve to have me in the Top 10," she said, per the Iceland Monitor.
She added that her "shoulders are a bit broader than the other girls' but that is because I was a member of the Icelandic national athletics team and I am proud of that."
Arna Ýr doesn't "take these comments to heart," saying, "Personally, I think I am fine as I am."
She posted a screenshot of her goodbye letter to Instagram. "I truly hope that the organization opens their eyes because the year is 2016 and if you are gonna hold an international beauty pageant you have to be able to see the international beauty," she wrote. "In my country my body shape is perfect And that's what I'm gonna remember. No one will ever tell me anything else."