The former Miss Ukraine 2018 is taking legal action against the Miss World pageant after she wasstripped of her titlelast year for being a divorced mother.
Veronika Didusenko, 24, announced on Instagram that she’s “launched a legal challenge” against the competition with the goal of fighting for “justice” and hopefully amending Miss World’s entry restrictions.
“The reason I was not allowed to compete in Miss World after winning the title #MissUkraine is because I had been married and have a child,” she wrote. “Denying me on the chance of competing on those bases breaches those protections against discrimination.”
The U.K.-based Miss World bans contestants who have children or have been married — and Didusenko was disqualified because competition organizers said they learned that she had not disclosed on her application that she both had a son and had been married.
Didusenko argued in her Instagram post that herSeptember 2018 removal— and the pageant’s entry policy — violates the U.K.’s Equality Act (2010), as it is 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,” she wrote. “These rules are a systemic, widespread and international policy that results in discrimination on large scale across many countries.”
Splash
Miss World issued astatementin response to Didusenko’s announcement, and claimed that her allegations arose from “incorrect statements” she made on her Miss Ukraine application.
The statement reiterated that because she gave “false information” on her application, she was disqualified as per the rules, and did not have the chance to participate in Miss World 2018.
RELATED VIDEO: Miss America Eliminates Swimsuit Competition: ‘We Are No Longer a Pageant’
Didusenko — who apologized to the organizing committee and pageant participants at a press conference after the scandal broke — told theBBCthat her goal was to amend the Miss World rules so that they reflected modern women’s ability to balance their careers and personal lives.
“Why should a woman be excluded from entering, just because she’s a mother?” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense. Being a mom doesn’t have any implication on my ability to be professional or be a successful model or do my job. So those rules didn’t make any sense to me.”
source: people.com
