“…Apparently, skirts like mine attract the boys and men that we study with and bar them from concentrating.”
When
Joaninne Nanyange, a law student studying in Kampala, Uganda, showed up
to the Law Development Centre to attend classes, two uniformed police
women reportedly stopped her and asked her to pull down her skirt “to
see how far down it could go.”
Bewildered,
Nanyange told the women that her knee-length skirt couldn’t be pulled
down any further. At this point, she was allegedly told that she
couldn’t enter the campus to attend class.
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| Today, dressed like this, I went to the Law Development Centre to attend classes. Unlike all other days, I saw two women seated right outside the Centre's gate, one dressed in a Khaki Police uniform. It was an unusual sight and I thought there was something or someone epic on campus. I got off the boda boda and walked towards the gate. The uniformed woman flagged me down and being the law abiding citizen that I am, I stopped. She asked me to |
Nanyange talks about the incident in a Facebook post that has now gone viral:
“The
other woman, ever with a very satisfied grin, told me I could not
access the campus because my skirt was not long enough for LDC
standards,” wrote Nanyange. “I was shocked. Yes. Shocked. Seeing the
bewilderment on my face, the two women laboured to explain. Apparently,
skirts like mine attract the boys and men that we study with and bar
them from concentrating. So they could not be allowed!!!!!!”
Nanyange
believes that patriarchy has been so widely institutionalized that some
feel the need to create “de facto” dress codes and pass rules
controlling women’s bodies. In an interview with BBC’s “World Have Your Say” Nanyange reiterated that her skirt wasn’t even that short, even for legal professional standards.
“…The
reason they gave me, it wasn’t about the fact that maybe your
profession requires you to have this length of skirt, it was about the
fact that if you go with this length of skirt, you’re going to distract
the men and boys that you’re studying with in class. That is really what
I found most shocking and more infuriating because I think we can do
better than that.”
In her Facebook message, she ponders why she should miss her classes “because men cannot control their sexual urges.”
Comments on her post were in Nanyange’s favor, including, “I
was about to laugh but the thought that this is actually real filled my
eyes with tears. This is blatant humiliation, and the most trivial
aspect of anything an institution should deal with.”
“I
work hard, and I manage to pay the…required (amount) for LDC’s tuition.
But I can’t access the campus to attend my classes because when ‘my
brothers’ look at my knees and legs, they will get erections,” she
poignantly concludes.