Yesterday a women’s lobby group, Katswe Sistahood, held a mini-skirt march in Harare. The mini-skirt journey took them from Town House through Copacabana terminus to Market Square.
SUNDAY VIEW BY CONELIA MABASA
This comes in the wake of harassment, heckling and in some instances open molestation of young women by city louts and streets urchins in downtown Harare. These louts consider themselves self-appointed “fashion police” and are ready to pounce on anyone they deem to be skimpily dressed or dressed to either solicit or to provoke them in a sensual manner.
Our constitution, as Katswe Sistahood rightly points out, gives women a fair share of freedoms; freedom of movement, association, speech, to dress as they want among other rights.
That touts want some areas to be no-go areas for some women or influence the way they dress through unruly means cannot be taken lightly.
They are also not the best dressers among us.
They show their underwear, their cracks, they reek of sweat and most of the time their bodies crave some good scrubbing.
The heckling and molestation stems from the patriarchal nature of our society; women have to know that big brother is on the watch out to whip them into line. Appropriate dressing is subjective, it is up to the individual to look at his/her reflection and nod or change into a new set altogether.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
However, that being said, I wish to point out a few things to my sisters.
Most people are dressing outrageously just to show the world that they are comfortable in their skin, a convenient excuse.
It is a mark of confidence that they are at peace with their bodies, but there is a fine line between being comfortable in your skin and projecting the image of an attention-seeking young woman.
In most cases women court unwanted attention when their chests threaten to spill out of their push-up bras. Such a display could be interpreted to mean that you are soliciting and that on its own is demeaning.
Unfortunately, one comes across as a cheap attention-seeker. Generally we are a decent nation and self-respect is all we need before we demand it from the next person.
Secondly, different occasions call for different dress codes. Sports, cocktails, church, the ramp, on stage etc. — you need to dress the part. A fair amount of semi-nudity is not necessarily an expression of freedom.
Fashion-conscious women among us are not necessarily semi-nudists. Think about US First Lady Michelle Obama or our own Grace Mugabe closer home. We need a bit of restraint.
At one time President Robert Mugabe spoke against crop tops [commonly referred to as guvhu out locally], women were getting carried away. Too many navels were on display.
Thirdly, I doubt the touts are any wiser after the march. They are just a lousy group of people among us and to think that to take the march into their territory would change them would be expecting too much.
What rules them is mob psychology. Ask City of Harare, they have tried to get rid of them to no avail. With the aid of ZRP, council police and at one time soldiers, Harare council tried in vain to rid the city of touts.
They even have tried to educate them that passengers should freely choose buses to travel in to no avail. Touts are an unemployed lot with their own frustrations. They are looking for somewhere to vent their pent up emotions.
Do not draw a false sense of security from this march. Otherwise, dress freely, move freely but “err on the cautious side”.
