Women in Swaziland risk arrest if they wear mini-skirts or tops which expose part of their stomach, a police spokeswoman has said.
Wendy Hleta said police would enforce an 1889 law which bans “immoral” dressing if they receive a complaint.
She also said women in the deeply conservative kingdom make it easier for rapists by wearing mini-skirts.
As outrageous as that sounds, this next part is my favorite:
Women who wear “skimpy clothes” also draw unnecessary attention to themselves, Ms Hleta said.
“I have read from the social networks that men and even other women have a tendency of ‘undressing people with their eyes’. That becomes easier when the clothes are hugging or are more revealing,” Ms Hleta is quoted as saying.
I’m not even sure where to start with this. The phrase “undressing her with his eyes” has been around at least as long as I have, so quoting it as some kind of hip new trend sounds out of touch, to put it mildly. Also, it seems incredibly inappropriate for a police department to base its policies on anecdotal evidence scraped from social networks.
Could women spur some change in Swaziland by taking to “the social networks” in outspoken opposition to rape culture?
Via Jezebel.