N.Y. Woman Files Complaint Against Miss America and Miss World for Barring Moms and Married from Competing

A New York mother has filed a complaint against Miss America and Miss World over their requirements that a woman must be unmarried and have no children to compete.

In the first complaint sent to the City of New York Commission of Human Rights and obtained by PEOPLE, Danielle Hazel — who had a son at the age of 19 — claimed that the entry requirement for the Miss World America pageant is “discriminatory.”

In a second complaint, Hazel made the same accusation against the Miss America rules.

The pageants are linked, with the Miss America winner going on and represent the U.S. in the global Miss World.

She is challenging the requirement in court so that she might one day compete, and alleged in the complaint that while she has satisfied “all of the other entry requirements” of the pageants, she “is rendered ineligible to enter because she has a son who is her legal dependent.”

The Miss America pageant did not immediately respond to request for comment on the complaint, but Ekta Saini, Miss World America’s national director, issued a statement to PEOPLE.

“I am a franchise holder. I don’t make rules,” Saini said. “Rules are made by our bosses in U.K. I am the national director of Miss World America. I don’t make any rules, I don’t break any rules. I follow their rules and regulations.” 

In her complaint, Hazel added that she has been “deprived of an opportunity that was extremely meaningful to her.” 

“She was not merely interested in fame or in prizes, but also dreamt of having the unparalleled charitable platforms Miss World provides,” reads the complaint. “In addition, this exclusion is degrading to her, as it is based upon the antiquated stereotype that women cannot be both a mother and be beautiful, poised, passionate, talented, and philanthropic.”

Hazel said in a separate statement to PEOPLE that having her son Zion “was one of the greatest gifts of my entire life,” and she “did not want nor plan to give up” on her” dreams and aspirations” just because she “became a mother.”

“I was devastated when I later learned that having my son disqualified me from competing in some of the most respected pageants, including Miss World and Miss America,” she said. 

“When I told Zion, who is now six years old, about these rules, he had an immediate gut reaction: he said that these rules are ‘stupid,’ “ she continued. “His sense of fairness at only six years old tells him that it is unjust and [makes] no sense.”

Hazel’s lawyer Gloria Allred added in a separate statement that, “being pregnant or being a parent is not a crime, and should not exclude an individual from employment or business opportunities. An individual’s status as a parent should not carry a stigma and no person should have to feel embarrassed, humiliated, or degraded because they have become a parent.”

The pair were joined in a press conference on Monday, Sept. 16 by Veronika Didusenko, leader of the #RightToBeAMother global initiative and former Miss Ukraine 2018, who had to give up her crown because it was discovered that she was a divorced mother.

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Didusenko said in a statement that she hoped to work with Allred and Hazel to “cancel these discriminatory rules that have existed for more than 70 years.”

Hazel echoed these sentiments noting that she initiated the complaint process against Miss World and Miss America because she did not want herself and other women “to be held back by these discriminatory entry rules.” 

“I also want to show everyone that mothers can also be philanthropists, advocates, and beauty queens,” she said.