Miss South Africa disqualified from Miss Earth 2017 for being 1 Centimeter ‘SHORT’
A sudden buzz has occurred in the pageant circuit where we are hearing that Miss South Africa- Irini Moutzouris got disqualified from the on going Miss Earth 2017 contest in Manila, Philippines. Apparently, the minimum requirement of the Miss Earth Pageant says 165 cm but Irini was 164 cm which wasn’t acceptable by the organisation and hense Miss South Africa has returned back to her country.
The official statement from the national organisation is here.
“Our delegate will not compete at the international event, and the decision has been made to bring her home. The international body have a different set of rules to our local programme, their event is governed by rules and requirements on height and weight, and they made the decision to not allow Irini to compete in the final leg of the competition based on the height requirement. We accept this as their prerogative and have decided to rather bring our ambassador back home to support our end-of-year programe”
-Ella Bella Leite, National Director of Miss Earth South Africa.
What surprises us is that Miss Earth has always been putting itself as a social cause oriented pageant yet they took a decision of disqualifying a girl for a reason of being short which has no connection to the cause. Besides, how was this decision taken in middle of the contest? Does it not jeopardize the reputation of the national org, girl and the international organisation? We have often see many girls less than 5’5″ competing at Miss Universe. In fact Mrs. Julia Morley once told in her interview that her winner could be 5’2″ if she is deserving in all other aspects. This raises an alarming question to all the people following pageants, did Miss Earth make a fair decision to the girl? Should pageants abolish minimum height requirement criteria? Cast your opinion in the below poll.
If it is so,why don’t u organise miss tallest.disrespect to the title itself.what is their in height.we can’ t stretch yourself.
i dont like your decision what is the problem if she 164 cm?i dont believe that
From what I know is that the height rule is already published and disseminated to the national directors. While it may have pained MEO to disqualify Miss South Africa, they did it so that other national directors won’t feel cheated that rules can be bent for certain candidates. A rule is a rule.
Wow. And you are called the Great Pageant community?! You posted half of what MESA said about the disqualification. This is not a controversy at all. MESA knew the rules but took a risk by sending Irini knowing she had not passed the requirements. Bold but it did not pay off. And please do not compare pageant rules with rest of the big 4. They are not owned by one organization therefore they can make their own requirements. Also, for the record, this was investigated at the on set of MESA’s arrival. The decision took long because they had to consult the rest of the pageant directors. Do your research before posting will you?