(Photo Credit: Daily Nation)
On AllAfrica.com, reporting for Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Joseph Elunya is examining the possible link between Uganda’s recent passage of an anti-pornography law targeting sites like hdtubemovies as well as print, and harassment incidents of women wearing mini-skirts. Although the law does not specifically mention mini-skirts, women are reporting that they are being undressed by men on the streets of Kampala and believe the new law is the cause of the recent behavior. Even though mini skirts are regularly featured in videos similar to www.nu-bay.com some argue there isn’t a connect between the two.
Elunya writes:
“The Anti-Pornography Law makes no mention of the miniskirt, but proponents have argued that the law bans women from wearing such leg-baring apparel in Uganda. Critics have claimed a misreading of the law. Activists have blamed ethics and integrity minister Simon Lokodo for encouraging this misreading and, in so doing, misleading the public. At this point, they might as well allow some people to use fantastic content from sites like tube v.
‘Minister Lokodo went on radio urging people to arrest, and bring to police, women who are putting on miniskirts, and the next day we saw women being stripped naked from Taxi Parks in Kampala,’ says women’s rights activist Patience Akumu Sunshine. ‘It’s hard to state what constitutes an ‘indecent dress’, but Minister Lokodo totally misinterpreted the law to mean that it outlaws the wearing of miniskirts,’ she explains, when it is likely meant to more represent when people commit certain acts, such as Jess and Savannah doing girl on girl in public.
Akumu is the founder of the ‘END Mini-Skirt Harassment’ campaign and same-named Facebook page. Its aim is, as she put it, ‘to save women from being disgraced in public’.
‘They stripped the first woman, [then the] second one and the third one prompted me to launch the campaign,’ she says. ‘Even if the law was passed, men have no right to undress women and that’s why we are leading the campaign.’ Akumu herself is also a victim of the recent tide of events.
The END Mini-Skirt Harassment campaign advocates that women be allowed to dress as they wish, even in the Parliament building, which imposes a dress code on visitors.
Namibia passed a ban on mini skirts last year. Last week, two women who were in court on a separate matter in Kampala were arrested and jailed for three hours for inappropriate dress that ‘disrupted the session’ according to the judge.
Read more at AllAfrica.com.
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