By Sharifatu Ja’afaru
Good dressing is good business. it will elicit respect from your fellow students and lecturers and most importantly it will save you the hazards of being a target for rape, for most rape victims are bad dressers. Indecent dressing is a social malady that cuts across many countries of the world.
Indecent dressing is the deliberate exposure of one’s body to the public. This habit is embraced by all ages in the society but it is prevalent among youths. In today’s Nigeria, over exposure to foreign culture through modern day channels of mass communication like satellite broadcast, internet and unregulated pirated videos, especially musical videos have taken their toil on the moral rectitude of our youth especially girls. Dresses that are meant as stage costumes for musicians and actresses are misconstrued by our gullible youth as everyday wears.
The concept of dressing from the Biblical point of view started from the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve used leaves to cover their nakedness. Right from then, dressing became part of humankind. The Qur’an also captures it right when it says ‘’Tell the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty. From the above, it clearly shows that both Christianity and Islam preach against indecent dressing.
Indecent dressing according to answers.com, is dressing in a way that is likely to shock or offend people. What may offend people, it added are parts of the body, usually sexual organs, which normally should be covered. For girls, these are breasts, thighs and buttocks. As a teenager you must be cautious of the kind of clothes you put on. Your dress can show if you are responsible or irresponsible, serious minded or unserious. Dressing in a manner that parents, society and religion frown at is not civilization.
Do you observe that many children have gone haywire all in the name of dressing? It becomes imperative at this juncture to ask: why do ladies dress indecently? Indecent dressing has been closely associated with poor parenting, peer pressure, wrong use of the internet, fading moral values as well as demonic influences among others.
This writer went round to seek people’s opinion on why ladies dress indecently on campus and got these responses: Mairiga Boyi, a post graduate student of Benue State University reacted thus: ‘’Because some women want to seduce men and some men only love ladies that seduce’’. To Tino Gidado a 300 Level student of Kogi State University ‘’they don’t have regards for their parents and they really don’t have privacy’’. The response of Serah Jeremiah also of Kogi State University is not different from others. To her, “they are from indecent homes and at the same time want more publicity”.
Davou Kpam a 300 Level Mass Communication student feels that ladies dress indecently primarily to ‘’impress, imitate and those who do, lack personal discipline and not parental discipline’’. In an interaction with Yunusa Ibrahim on Facebook, the 200 Level Geography student of Bayero University Kano says, “They dress indecently for temptation and seduction”. The opinion of Rebecca Abaku, a Mass Communication student of University of Jos is not different. In her words “they dress indecently because they want to fit into the trends of the society.” To Caroline Ohadike, “most ladies don’t know where they are heading to. Ladies are very vulnerable and in a liberal society like the university environment you find it hard not to sink into the crowd no matter your background’’.
Indecent dressing no matter how well we try to link it with ‘civilization’ has no place in the African culture. The African culture places so much prestige on the African woman. Whether in the Western or African society, indecent dressing is the major cause of the various assaults and sexual harassment recorded in the society over time.MThere is a strong belief among some people that a large number of rape victims were victims of their mode of dressing. As a result of this ‘civilization’ ladies dress half naked to schools, events and even religious gatherings all in the name of fashion.
This social malady has made our male counterparts to become sexually restive. Late last year in a neighbouring campus, some ladies who went to the University for post UTME examination and had accommodation challenges that made them to lay their heads in a nearby primary school were reported raped.
To the society this menace is gradually becoming a norm and the etiquette that African society is known for is gradually becoming a thing of the past. African culture is being eroded by indecent dressing. Culturally, you know a country is advancing when the citizens honour their own culture but the reverse is the case in our society today.
Among the females these type of dressing include mini skirt, bumper short, armless, show back popularly known as spaghetti tops etc. I was relaxing outside the hostel one evening when a young lady came passing by wearing a bomber shorts and armless, and I heard a young guy say, ‘you look sexy’. The fact is, most young guys will be cheering such girls but will never pray to have them as a wife or sister.
The consequences of this habit is glaring- it debases womanhood. It speaks evil of the society where it obtains. Irresponsible, undisciplined, ungodly, and greedy men are attracted and earn young girls rape. The negative consequences of indecent dressing have also been identified to include rape, prostitution, HIV/AIDS and other venereal diseases, infections as well as armed robbery and poor academic performance in school. One needs more than a gift of discernment to distinguish and differentiate a prostitute from a lady in provocative wears. Like the old will always say, “girls in decent attire are less likely to misbehave.” This is very true to an extent.
Guys are not left out in this social malady. Many innocent guys have been arrested along with armed robbers just because of the way they dressed. I see no reason why a child from good home should relax or keep dreadlocks, piercing his ears all in the name of fashion.
It is as a result of the deteriorating dressing styles on campus that the management of University of Jos approved a dress code for the institution. The question is, who do we blame for this social malady – the parents, the society or the peer group? I leave this to your imagination.
To curb the menace of indecent dressing, parents are urged to be good models in morals to their children, give them attention and regulate the type of films they watch at homes. The mass media must promote good moral values while religious leaders must preach against it, counsel and deliver those under demonic influences. The introduction of college or university dress codes can also help. These are necessary if decency must be achieved.
