Married Beauty Queens Challenge Rules

May 24, 2004 -- She won a regional beauty pageant and was all set to compete for the Miss Canada International title when she was unceremoniously stripped of her crown. Her offense: being a single mom.

Last summer, Kalista Zackhariyas, 24, was allowed to participate in the 2003 Miss Vaughan pageant despite being the divorced mother of a 3-year-old son.

But when she won the title and qualified for the Miss Canada International contest — which in turn sends winners on to the Miss World pageant — she was told to forget about any advancement in the pageant pecking order.

An acrimonious war of words between the deposed beauty queen and contest organizers then followed. But in the end, Zackhariyas was banned from the Miss Canada International contest and made to forfeit the Miss Vaughan title. Nearly a year later, the Toronto-based media consultant is still bitter.

"I thought I was going to be a role model for young women, I thought I was going to make a difference," she says. "I don't understand these rules. If I'm single, I'm single. What does it matter if I'm a mother, a sister or an aunt? It doesn't matter, it shouldn't matter."

But to the organizers of the more than 140 national pageants that lead up to the crowning of Miss World, it does indeed matter. For more than half a century, most of the pretty young hopefuls signing up for regional and national qualifying rounds have had to attest they have never been married or pregnant.

It's a requirement a number of participants in recent years have fought, fudged or fibbed about. But they don't always manage to pull it off. And invariably, tiaras are yanked, sashes stripped, and yesterday's pageant queen is declared persona non grata.

Mixed Message: Be Sexy But Still Pure

The latest pageant scandal emerged earlier this year when Laxmi Pandit, winner of the 2004 Miss India contest, handed back her crown after a controversy erupted over her marital status.

Pandit's abdication came a year after Miss Brazil 2003 Joseane Oliveira was stripped of her crown after pageant organizers discovered she was married.