Mini-skirts do not imply prositituiton, JKK as PAC speaks
Women who are donning of mini-skirts do not represent prostitutes, says outspokesn president of the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union, Dr. Jesse Kabwila-Kapasula.
Kabwila-Kapasula was dispelling the thinking after unemployed youths and sidewalk vendors stripped some women in Lilongwe and Mzuzu for mainly wearing mini-skirts, trousers and leggings.
Some sections of the society have also been advocating for the ban on ladies from putting on miniskirts, saying the skirts are tempting men into reckless sex behaviour and thereby escalating the HIV scourge.
But Kabwila –kapasula said that was wrong thinking.
“Mini-skirts do not denote prostitution,” she said at the event organised by leading rights activists to protests against the attack oon women.
“You can be a prostitute in whatever dress,” said Kabwila-Kapasula.
President Bingu wa Mutharika Thursday ordered police to arrest ‘anybody seen harassing women’, saying women were free to wear what they desire.
Some men commenting on Nyasa Times and social networking sites said women should be protected for exercising their freedom of dressing as enshrined in the Constitution but urged them to take their rights with responsibility by desisiting from wearing clothes “that rouse sex appetite.”
PAC speaks
Meanwhile, the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), a grouping of religious leaders in Malawi says it is concerned n over the developments that have taken place regarding the unwelcome treatment to women based on their style of dressing.
PAC appeals to all those who are involved in such acts to immediately refrain from such conduct and allow women to freely move in the markets and entire cities of Malawi.
“We feel that these scenes of attacking women defeat the whole purpose of ushering in the hard-won democracy,” said PAC in a statement signed by its chairperson Reverend MacDonald Kadawati.
“Women are part of our society and the dressing we witness today has not started this year,” the statement e-mailed to Nyasa Times said.
PAC further call upon all faith-based organizations to educate and advise their followers to exercise restraint as they express grievances on issues that affect them.
The faith group said it will further consider holding prayers on the “unfortunate” developmet.
Until 1994, women in this deeply conservative poor nation were banned from wearing pants, during the long dictatorship of Kamuzu Banda.
