Women activists say that the pageant is demeaning as it depicts their bodies as sex objects.
A Ugandan woman has started an online petition to have the Miss Curvy Uganda contest cancelled.
The pageant was unveiled in Kampala on Tuesday by the State Minister for Tourism, Mr Godfrey Kiwanda, as part of tourism promotion.
“We have naturally endowed nice looking women that are amazing to look at. Why don’t we use these people as a strategy to promote our tourism industry?” Mr Kiwanda posed.
The initiative has however stirred up a storm with the minister now facing accusations of trying to promote sex tourism.
Women say the contest is demeaning as it depicts their bodies as sex objects.
“I personally feel attacked. This is degrading of women. In a country where women are grabbed by men while walking on the streets and now they have legalised it by making them tourist attractions is not fair,” Ms Primrose Murungi’s petition reads.
She demands that contest be cancelled and that Mr Kiwanda offers a public apology for coming up with such an initiative.
“They are objectifying us and reducing women to nothing. Please sign this petition for ministry of tourism to take down the Miss Curvy challenge and offer an apology to the public as well.”