Indonesia will hold a pageant exclusively for Muslims, The Muslimah World contest, in rivalry to the Miss World beauty contest.

The Muslimah World contest's founder Eka Shanti says the Muslimah World contest to be held on Wednesday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is "Islam's answer to Miss World".

"Muslimah World is a beauty pageant but the requirements are very different from Miss World," Ms Shanti said. "You have to be pious, be a positive role model and show how you balance a life of spirituality in today's modernised world."

The 20 Muslimah World finalists were chosen from more than 500 who took part in online rounds, reciting Koranic verses and telling stories of how they came to wear the Islamic headscarf, a requirement for the pageant.

The finalists, from Iran, Malaysia, Brunei, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Indonesia, will parade Islamic fashions in what Ms Shanti says is an opportunity to show young Muslim women they do not need to show their "immodest" parts, including their hair and bare shoulders, to be beautiful.

Ms Shanti says she did not support hardliners' calls to cancel the Miss World contest, acknowledging that Indonesia was a diverse country with many faiths.

"We don't just want to shout 'no' to Miss World," Ms Shanti said. "We'd rather show our children they have choices – Do you want to be like the women in Miss World or like those in Muslimah World?"

The Muslimah World pageant is the latest backlash against Miss World, which has already dropped the bikini from its beach fashion round and has attracted more than a month of protests by Muslim hardliners demanding the show be scrapped. Radicals have set effigies of the organisers alight and deemed the contest "smut" and "pornographic".

After repeated protests, the Miss World final was moved from the outskirts of the capital Jakarta to the resort island of Bali, where the contest began last week with no opposition from the Hindu majority there.

Despite the move, protestors from the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia demonstrated in the central Java city of Yogyakarta with its spokeswoman saying "Miss World is not welcome in Indonesia at all".

Miss World contestants were again ridiculed today with around 300 members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front gathering in the capital, holding signs that read "Miss World is a whore contest".

The decision to move the final round was the latest victory for Islamic fringe groups, who are wielding increasing power and have succeeded in getting several events they deem un-Islamic changed or cancelled in recent years.