Of mini-skirts and morals: social control in Nigeria...

Women’s dressing has become the site for pernicious policing and debates about social and moral decay in Africa, with calls for intervention within Nigeria’s higher education institutions, by religious organisations, and the media. Over the past decade, some universities ↑ have banned the wearing of trousers and any 'revealing' clothes by young women because they are seen as a distraction to male students and lecturers. The argument is that revealing attire has made sexual violation and harassment a marked feature of university life in Nigeria, and therefore imposing a strict dress code on female students is the only way to stop it.

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In justifying the Bill, Senator Ekaette argued that given what she sees as a collapse in morals, a return to God is necessarily the touchstone for moral and spiritual rebirth. For the Senator, not legislating against public lewdness would result in the complete annihilation of what she describes as “our age-long values of very high morals, and we would be forced to all wear iron jeans trousers with padlocked belts to avoid being raped or sexually assaulted. God forbid!” Full story...

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