now in September 2018 Veronica Deane
ischenko was crowned the winner of the
Miss Ukraine beauty pageant but just
four days later she was stripped of her
title what for exactly well simply for
being a mother according to the rules of
the Miss World franchise you can't take
part if you have children
well now Veronica who has a
five-year-old son has taken the beauty
contest to court over its policy and we
are joined by Veronica dudo Genco
to you both
Veronica you knew the rules presumably
before you entered today I didn't know
the rules before I started completing
the application form and at this moment
organizers of Miss Ukraine who owns the
franchise of Miss World they encouraged
me to enter the competitions and they
were inviting me to join their pageant
and then I started completing the
application form I realized that those
rules are still existing but I couldn't
understand how being a mother which
implications has my ability to be
professional fashion model or successful
charity workers so but whether you
applied and when you and when you went
for this competition did you have to
declare whether you had children or not
tell them so it's the only time when I
so the this rule was when I started
completing the application form and what
did you say so you said that you didn't
have children today yeah because if you
click don't click the box the other
perfectly your application Jon ghost
doesn't go through and you cannot apply
and so they found out once you had been
crowned what happened then
after three days I've been crowned I
would school by it
and how did you feel about that I felt
firstly I felt shocked because I didn't
really think at the time I could win and
then I was disqualified it was twice
more shocking for me I felt so
humiliated and insulted and at this
moment I started getting thousands of
comments and messages to my social media
supporting my campaign against those who
you felt in
by that because because rules are
discriminatory and there is no place for
them in 21st century when women can
successfully balance their careers and
parenting well we have awesome is well
for a response and just say they haven't
come back to us yet but in 2018 the Miss
World Organization CEO Julia Torre did
speak about the new no children rule and
the organization said that when you're
trying to get a worldwide organization
to agree how to look to everyone and
they vote as to what is acceptable
that's what she told the good morning
Britain program and also if you can
understand we don't just have our own
feelings we have others to consider so
what we try to do is to get a balance
and the other thing that they raised
Shareen marker if I can just put this to
you is that they have to look out for
the welfare of the children who and
obviously in the job of being you know a
winner you're traveling a lot isn't that
fair enough
and I mean we understand where they're
cut what they're saying but we would
argue that cultural sensitivities should
not form the basis for discrimination
and in today's day and age the fact that
you're married or that you have children
shouldn't act as an impediment to your
professional career so we would argue
that they odd it is discriminatory and
the fact that she might have childcare
responsibilities shouldn't have a
bearing on whether she's allowed to
progress in this but in this competition
and Shireen just you are taking legal
action what what is the process what's
what's the timeframe of this at the
moment sure say we have written to the
Miss World
organizers threatening legal legal
action on the basis that the rules are
discriminatory and that they're contrary
to the equalities Act and we were
supposed to receive a response on Friday
and we received a holding letter from
their legal team now that's encouraging
because the fact that they've instructed
a legal team shows that they're taking
the matter seriously but there's no
there's no real excuse for any delay and
we now intend to file a complaint with
the equalities and Human Rights
Commission because we believe that this
is an issue which is widespread and it
shows systemic discrimination that
impacts many people are not just
Veronica so we think it's something that
the equality and human rights can
we'll be very well-placed to try and
bring an end to yes I mean I'm sure
obviously they will have their own view
on this just and they will have their
own justifications as we've said in
their own reasoning so we'd have to see
legally how this plays out well what do
you do with your son when you're
traveling or what are you working I mean
her you know normally yeah Alex have
been traveling with me all the time when
I was working as a model so I worked in
Paris and land in London old is he he is
five now he goes to kindergarten in the
Ukraine but when I travel I take him
with me his absolutely developed happy
healthy boy and I never had a problem
with him traveling around the world what
will happen when he's a bit older and he
needs to be at school yeah I mean
already he probably in his vehicle yeah
in Ukraine kids go to school when
they're six years old yeah so I have one
more year I know you talked about the
word sort of humiliating and degrading
and you're a beautiful girl some people
will say the whole you know Miss World
these sort of competitions in themselves
aren't they rather degrading now in this
day and age to be judged for your little
parade in a competitive way for that you
don't need to do that you know inclusive
competitions can break gender
stereotypes can help to empower women
and can create a perfect platform to
develop revered professional skills for
me you miss Ukraine was a platform to
develop my charity called yank Einsteins
I run a charity project in Ukraine to
help orphans a talented mathematics
develop their talents so for me it was a
good platform to develop my charity
cause okay
veronika Jenko xuan market thank you
both very much need for coming in order
to me thank you so much