Home ›› 11 Aug 2022 ›› Show Biz
US-based annual international beauty pageant Miss Universe has now updated its entry rules. According to their latest regulation, the contest will begin welcoming married women and mothers to compete for the first time in its 70-year-long history. According to an internal memo obtained by The National, the annual competition will accept married women and contestants with children from 2023.
A recent report by Insider says, that the publication had access to the internal memo in which the organization reveals these new decisions will help them evolve with the times. “We all believe that women should have agency over their lives and that a human’s personal decisions should not be a barrier to their success,” the memo said, according to The National. The new rules are expected to be effective for the 72nd pageant, held in 2023.
For over seven decades, single women with no kids between 18 and 28 years old were the only ones who qualified to compete. The contestants who had never been married or had children had to demonstrate to a group of judges why they were the right choice to represent their country and the organization.
“The Miss Universe Organization is always the greatest and most innovative platform of its kind, and now it will be more inclusive and welcoming to mothers and married women. For me, this is aligned with what I have been fighting for — breaking stereotypes and unlearning the stigma that the old society has forced on us from many, many decades ago,” Josh Yugen, chief executive of Yugen Group and the national director of Miss Universe Bahrain told The National.
The international beauty pageant is run by the United States–based Miss Universe Organization and is one of the most watched pageants in the world with an estimated audience of over 500 million viewers in over 190 territories.
Along with Miss World, Miss International, and Miss Earth, Miss Universe is one of the Big Four international beauty pageants.
The Miss Universe Organization is currently owned by Endeavor and Telemundo has the licensing rights to air the pageant through 2023.
