This albino beauty pageant defies negative stigma
Hosted in Zimbabwe
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LIFESTYLE Zimbabwe
As a way to combat decades of negative stigma and violence, Zimbabwe hosted the first-ever Miss Albanism beauty pageant.
Albinism is a hereditary condition that targets skin pigmentation in one's skin, hair, and eyes. According to dose.com, about 1 in 17,000 Americans are born as albinos, however in Africa about 1 in 2,000 people are affected. This condition can affect anyone, regardless of race and genetic skin color.
"If someone has a dream to become a beauty queen, being albino should not be a limitation at all," Pauline Gundidza, one of the contest's judges, told AJ+. "In a platform like this, they should be celebrated for who God created them to be."
Since 2008, there have been over 600 reported attacks on albino people in sub-Saharan Africa. Believed to bring money and power, many people with the skin condition are tortured for their body parts or sold on the black market.
This beauty pageant is a way of bringing awareness and attempting to normalize the condition across the continent, as well as internationally.