The annual international beauty pageant Miss Universe will allow mothers and married women to participate in the contest from 2023.

Earlier, the regulations of the Miss Universe beauty pageant allowed only unmarried women and women with no children aged between 18 and 28 to participate in the contest. Winners were also expected to remain single and avoid getting pregnant throughout their reign as Miss Universe.

However, marital and parental status will no longer be an eligibility criterion for the pageant contestants, according to Fox News. The new rule will kick in with the 72nd Miss Universe pageant, which will be held in 2023, the report added.

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Welcoming the change, Miss Universe 2020 winner Andrea Meza of Mexico said that the rules until now were ‘sexist’ and ‘unrealistic’.

She said that a few people did not want the rule to change as they desired to see a single beautiful woman who is available for a relationship. “They always wanted to see a woman that, from the outside, looks so perfect that she's almost unreachable. The former is sexist and the latter is unrealistic,” Fox News quoted her as saying.

Contestants from about 80 countries participate in the Miss Universe pageant each year. The pageant is run by an organisation of the same name. The event broadcasts in over 160 territories and countries across the globe. The first Miss Universe beauty pageant was held in 1952 in Long Beach, California. Armi Kuusela of Finland, who won the first title, relinquished her crown to get married just before her term came to an end.

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In 2021, Harnaaz Sandhu of India crowned Miss Universe at the 70th Miss Universe pageant held in Eilat, Israel. Before Sandhu, two other Indians, Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta had won the Miss Universe title in 1994 and 2000, respectively.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)