No uniforms please, students say about campus clothes

Every now and then a heated debate erupts about young women who wear ‘indecent’ clothes. In one such instance, a while ago, the debate was ignited following the arrest of a 24-year-old woman at a concert because of an outfit that showed off too much of her body.

Often, the debate about what women should wear widens to include the manner in which female university students dress and how this affects other students and academic staff members.

After all, a university campus is a gathering place of a large number of young women. Many of them believe they should be able to decide what is right for them and not care about the rest.

When I was a university student, not too long ago, I remember cases of bullying and harassment when fellow female students attended class wearing short skirts or tight clothes. Everyone would discuss what these women were wearing and would propose a different way of dressing.

Many female students were made to feel ashamed and that they had committed a crime. I witnessed how women who are being looked at feel uncomfortable and embarrassed – how she pulls at her skirt or dress shows how she is being affected.

I had a similar experience when I wore my clothes [as I wanted to] thinking that it was my right, but people made me feel as if I had committed a sin. It was so mortifying.

What do other students think?

As I spoke to other students about this topic, male students told me that the clothing women wear could distract and unsettle them during lectures. For instance, if a female student with a revealing outfit entered the classroom late, everyone’s eyes would be on her, instead of on the teacher and following the lecture.

They told me that women should know where and when to wear such clothes. And I second their views on one level, but also asked them how we were supposed to dress and what ‘shameful’ outfits looked like.

Some said that we should wear pants with T-shirts or sweaters, long dresses and long skirts but not mini dresses and skirts or tank tops. Others suggested that universities should introduce uniforms, but I thought they were joking.

Freedom?

After all they told me, I wondered about the word ‘freedom’. From primary to high school, the wearing of a uniform was among the things that I hated. I worked hard to enter university so that I could wear the clothes of my choice.

This was because the freedom to wear what you wanted made you feel you were free to guide your own life towards your own destination. So, being free also included that you could do things the way you wanted to do them without anyone judging you.

I asked other students what they thought about our freedom as mature people, and they answered that being mature included respecting the norms, values and culture of a nation, and also respecting yourself and others. They added that, if you respected yourself, others also respected you, and that the way you dressed played a big role in how you expressed your personality.

Though I wasn’t convinced of all these views, they made me think about the surrounding influences on how we dress.

On rare occasions, I do wake up feeling as if I want to do something unusual and wear nothing, but I can’t go out without clothes because of society’s rules, and we have to follow them. So, whereas we were free, we also had to respect some norms to fit into society.

Finding a balance

In my opinion, while university students should not be obliged to wear uniforms, there should be some regulations concerning the outfits we wear in universities if we are to ensure a conducive learning environment. At many universities in Rwanda, such regulations were lacking.

Much as we could link the sexual harassment cases recorded in universities with indecent dressing [or otherwise], it just might trigger the former. And if we could try to avoid all this, we needed to encourage young female students to embrace decency whenever they left their homes.

To conclude, female students should wear clothes that fit them and should choose their outfits wisely.

Depending on where they go, students can wear clothes that are appropriate to the event. For instance, if students were going to a picnic, they would not be blamed for wearing bikinis, but why should we attend classes in bikinis?

Decency should be the guideline determining female students’ choice of clothes to wear. But what decency means may also differ from one person to another. So, perhaps a better guideline is self-respect and respect for others around you.

Alice Tembasi is a journalism graduate and a regular contributor to University World News.This feature has been translated from the French by Jean d’Amour Mbonyinshuti.