Makerere Bans Miniskirts, Tights! A Joke

Makerere University has taken the controversial step to regulate the dress code during lectures for both staff and students. (Makerere bans miniskirts, tights”, Daily Monitor, June 9).

It appears that the supporters of the sexual harassment policy believe that prescribing certain types of dressing would reduce the incidents of sexual harassment.

There is a problem, though, with the logic advanced in banning the miniskirt and tights, linking indecent dressing to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment occurs even in places where a conservative dress code is observed. Men at the workplace have often complained of sexual harassment from their “business suit clad” female bosses, and vice versa. To link sexual harassment to dress is fairly simplistic.

Under this new arrangement, which is likely to begin in August when the students report back from holidays, female students, would be required to adhere to a dress code that tallies with events for which they will be in attendance.

An offender could receive written warnings, be asked to apologise before the relevant committee or, in exceptional circumstances, even be suspended from the university.

Mr Robert Rutaro, the president of the Students' Guild, welcomed the policy, saying, "students should dress decently."

Mr John Ekudu Adoku, the dean of students, said the policy was intended to inspire behavioural change, especially on the part of female students.

"We think that rules don't change people but once you talk to them they can change,”Ekudu said.

Sexual harassment is beyond “dress code” like senior administrators at Makerere University suggest.

Sexual harassment is basically about the use of power. It depends on who has more power. A student can harass a lecturer, but what is more fundamental is how the lecturer responds.

It is about the unfair use of influence, power, or authority by one person over another or a lack of respect for another person.

So the reasoning fronted by top administrators that indecent dressing constitutes a form of sexual harassment is simply naïve and old fashioned.

Similarly who and how will indecent dressing be determined under this new arrangement? Perhaps the frontiers of the policy owe the students and the public an explanation of what constitutes indecent dressing.

In so doing, Makerere is being typically Ugandan and quite African. In times of crisis, when there is need for self-criticism and assessment, good and realistic thinking that bitterly faces the problem fairly and honestly, takes a back seat.

That Makerere has chosen to put its money on this tired old horse is not surprising but worrying. The university does not seem to be ready to take the responsibility and is bent on sweating the small stuff.

Makerere should instead invest in more facilities to curb the problems of overcrowding, which has resulted in excessive teaching loads, large classes and falling standards. It should also be bent on solving the rampant strikes the university is currently facing rather than concentrate on small matters on the way female students dress.

At the end of the day its mess will aggravate while they run around seemingly busy measuring the length of women's skirts. Like most solutions to Makerere’s policies, there will be a lot of motion but no progress. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "speed is irrelevant if you are going in the wrong direction."

Makerere should also invest more in educating their students about their environment and to protect them from its dangers than issue bans.

If all this is in place, the length of women's skirts will cease to bother Makerere. That is the challenge. The problem is deeper than that.

No regulation can change that. Like most Ugandan institutions, Makerere is addressing symptoms, not the disease.