Academic

?Should women wear pants??

By Ann Bartow

The BBC reports that women of all tribes in Kenya are being attacked, stripped, and beaten for wearing trousers in public. It has published some questions for debate that readers from around the globe have responded to.

Who should decide what indecent dressing is? Should governments dictate what you wear? Should women dress more formally to feel safe? Send us your views.

The responses on the site are interesting. In particular, it’s heartbreaking that the physical violence is a secondary concern:

Sierra Leone is one of the countries that is seriously affected. There is no code of dressing here.Women especially young girls almost walk in our streets naked in the name of fashion or imitating what is happening in the western world.This is a disgrace to our women folks and must be address urgently by our leaders or am afraid what our next generation is going to be like.

–Tracy McGaugh

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on February 11, 2008 (boomark / email).