At the time of the competition, she was a third-year student at the Unity University College pursuing a course in Information Management Systems.
At Miss World 2003 pageant with 100 contestants, Hayat made the semi-finals and the title "Continental Queen of Beauty - Africa."
This has sparked outrage and claims of hypocrisy as she is a Muslim woman promoting safe sex in Ethiopia, a very culturally conservative country, by using very western-style seductive advertisements for condoms on billboards.
"Some Ethiopian people get shocked when they bring the bill with a condom, some saying we are promoting immorality," a waiter stated in 2008.
[1][2][3][4] By 2010, Bellissima was well established, and still distributing free coffee-flavored condoms with the sponsorship of Marie Stopes International.