Miss Curvy Uganda pageant is back.
This follows a bold move by the organizers of the event to storm the office of the country’s speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, with a bevy of curvy contestants in tow.
According to the Daily Monitor, the pageant’s chief organizer Ms. Anne Mungoma led the curvaceous beauties to the office of Kadaga at around 12.30pm on Wednesday.
There, they successfully petitioned the speaker to reconsider her stance on the pageant and clear misconceptions on what it was all about.
“We felt offended when critics of this pageant, branded our event as one aimed at promoting sex tourism and this is not true.
“We want to showcase Uganda through fashion and dances as curvy women… Many Ugandan women are created plus size anyway, so we want to use our beauty to promote tourism. We believe anyone is a tourism ambassador,” Mungoma told Kadaga.
Convinced, the speaker gave it a go ahead.
"I misunderstood the pageant after the protest it faced from the public but now that I have understood what it’s about, it is okay. You can go ahead and organize the event,” said Ms. Kadaga.
Miss Curvy Uganda chief organizer, on the other hand, told the Daily Monitor that more than 200 curvy women had registered for the event scheduled for June 2019.
“Miss Curvy is a beauty pageant that is organized internationally to recognize curvaceous women, and not slim women since many people have failed to get the real definition of Miss Curvy contest,” Mungoma was quoted saying.
The pageant attracted controversy before it even took off.
On the fore were condemnation by gender activist that the pageant was backward and a tool used to commercialize and exploit women and girls.
A statement by State Minister for Tourism Godfrey Kiwanda that curvaceous women be declared tourism attractions stirred more debate.
In his defense, Kiwanda said that his statement was misinterpreted.
"Tourism starts with people and that Uganda is beyond just animals and its people are the biggest tourism product. That's why we have been voted several times as happiest people in the world and most hospitable,” said Kiwanda.