Kathmandu, Sep 22 - After being blocked by the Maoists, Nepal's oldest and best known beauty pageant, Miss Nepal, is finally scheduled to be held Thursday without drawing attention to its Indian sponsor, Dabur Nepal, which is thought to be the actual target of the former guerrillas.

The Dabur Vatika Miss Nepal contest, which was sponsored by Indian ayurvedic product manufacturer Dabur to promote its Dabur Vatika range of cosmetics for women, has now been repositioned as the Fem Miss Nepal 2009 pageant in a bid to downplay the role of the Indian company that the Maoists have been pressuring the pageant organisers to replace.

This June, the Dabur India board approved the acquisition of Fem Care Pharma Ltd, mainly known for its bleaching and depilatory products.

While Fem bleaching products are available in Nepal, so far, buyers are yet to associate them with Dabur the way they do the Real fruit juice and Vatika products.

Miss Nepal, started 15 years ago, could not be held last year due to opposition by the women's wing of the Maoists who said the pageant degraded women as commodities.

With a Maoist-led government ruling Nepal last year, it was impossible to hold the pageant after the former rebels allegedly threatened the show's media partners, the venue authorities and even some of the contestants.

When the Maoist government fell in May, the Hidden Treasure, the event management company franchised to hold the pageant, announced the show would be resumed.

Sixteen women, including the first Muslim contestant, have been shortlisted to take part in the show on Thursday.