New Delhi: Miss Ukraine Veronika Didusenko has filed a lawsuit against the organizers of Miss World after she was banned to represent her country that year.
Ms Didusenko was crowned Miss Ukraine but only for four days after the organizers learned she is married and a mother of five-year-old, they stripped her of the title.
She later launched the global campaign #RightToBeAMother after that.
The 24-year-old called the rules of the pageant “discriminatory on various grounds, namely marital status, and pregnancy and maternity,” in one of her recent posts shared on Instagram, indiatoday reports.
She also wrote, “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.”
Her lawsuit claims Miss World breached the Equality Act, 2010, of the United Kingdom.
The Equality Act legally protects 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 several other factors.