The Miss World pageant has found itself surrounded by yet another controversy. Ex- Miss Ukraine Veronika Didusenko has taken to Instagram and blasted the Miss World organisers. She said the rules are discrimatory on various grounds, especially since they disqualified her for being a single mother.
Ex-Miss Ukraine, Veronika Didusenko was debarred from participating in Miss World, when the organisers of the pageant after they found out she was a divorcee and with a child. The model has now threatened the organisers with a lawsuit, for their ‘sexist and outdated’ rules and has launched an online campaign called #righttobeamother. The model also demands for the beauty pageant to rethink their rules and change them.
The 24-year-old single mother took to her Instagram page and blasted the organisation and said its rules were “discriminatory on various grounds, namely marital status, and pregnancy and maternity.”
“I don’t want the crown back. I want to get the rules changed for wider society. These rules are a systemic, widespread and international policy that results in discrimination on large scale across many countries,” she also wrote.
Veronika claims that the Miss World organization breached the Equality Act, 2010, of the United Kingdom, which prohibits discrimination against anyone on the basis of age, gender reassignment, being married or in a civil partnership, being pregnant or on maternity leave, race and various other factors.This year, the Miss World pageant will be held in London on December 14. Ukraine will now be represented by Margaryta Pasha, a law student.
Miss World Organisers haven’t yet released a statement on this controversy.