Students strike out as new campus dress codes imposed

Students on Egypt’s public university campuses have struck out against new regulations on dress codes that prohibit a range of fashion choices, from ripped jeans, baggy or tight fitting pants, “revealing” clothes that “evoke the desires of male students” and galabeyas, to certain hairstyles that some administrators have called “disgusting” and judge to be at the root of sexual harassment, writes Mai Shams El-Din for Mada Masr.

The Higher Education and Scientific Research Ministry spokesperson Adel Abdel Ghaffar told Mada Masr that during a meeting ahead of the new academic year, the Supreme Council of Universities instructed university administrations to bring “discipline” back to Egyptian campuses.

Mohamed Hussein, a masters student at Alexandria University, told Mada Masr that university guards have recently started barring students wearing ripped jeans and shorts from the campus. They have also prevented students smoking cigarettes, he added. “This is an attempt to project the failures of Egypt’s education system on the ethics of students,” he said. “They want to tell us these don’t stem from mismanagement, or the lack of a proper research environment, but are related to the deteriorating morals of students. This is the discourse of the ruling regime, largely.”
Full report on the Mada Masr site