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In many South Asian countries especially, the ogre of dress code has been raising its ugly head very often.
Behind every such move which is followed by violence, coming through order or fatwa, there is a tendency to underline and stress the patriarchal system of society and control the lives as well as the likings of women. There are innumerable instances to show that whenever and wherever women and girls tried to come closer or gain parity with men in education, employment and other fields of activity, attempts were and are made to push them back to the medieval age by resorting to such retrogressive and repressive means. The aim is just to re-establish the male superiority over women and reassert the aphorism that 'men are borne to rule whereas women are borne to bear'.
To impose any kind of dress code is an infringement of the fundamental rights of women. But the question is- whether it is fundamentalists alone responsible for imposing dress code? No. Since their dress code is publicly declared, it, therefore, attracts serious media attention and public outcry. What about the 'other dress code' which, though not generally declared one, is equally dangerous in its impact but remains, by and large, undiscussed and uncondemned. While the former dress code
imposed by militants and fundamentalists generates fear and terror, the latter or the second kind of dress code creates a sense of inferiority complex and backwardness in the minds of the targeted persons. Equally true is the fact that in the first case there is a whole lot of media, human rightists and women organizations standing in solidarity with the targeted group against such fatwas. On the contrary, the victims of the 'other dress code' find themselves standing alone with no support whatsoever from any side.
Yes, we are talking about the dress code imposed upon girls inside the homes by their parents or elder brothers. We are also talking of the dress code imposed by the male and female students of modern thinking and modern living upon those girls who believe in simple living. The height of the paradox is that the dress code imposed at home in many families does not allow a girl to attire in modern, whereas the exterior dress code in colleges and universities does not want them to come in simple wears. The dress code at home expects a girl to wear
salwar-kameez and cover her head with a lengthy dupatta, the code prevailing in the vicinity of the campus, especially in big cities, wishes girls to shed traditional attires and come in jeans, mini-skirts, etc in order to be a part of the vast majority of the collegiate. The practitioners and protagonists of this code expect girls to look glamorous, For them, the girls clad in traditional saree or salwar-kameej are the synonymous of 'Behanji'- a term commonly used in rural areas for lady teachers. "We girls, who wear salwar-kameej are considered backward and silly by those who come in modern apparels. In their group, they ridicule us as 'Behanji' or even as 'Bahurani'. In this war of jeans vs. salwar-kameej, the majority wears jeans, etc. As such, those girls who wear the traditional suits feel themselves to be isolated", confided a girl studying in M.A. (English Literaturre) in a prestigious women's college of Delhi University.
This is not an emotional outburst. This is a harsh reality of thousands of those girl students who, either themselves do not want to wear the so called modern apparels or even if they wish, they cannot do so due to the parental fear.
Apparently, if the Taliban sort of dress code is condemnable, the code imposed by the modernists can also not escape criticism. However, it remains to be seen as to how and when it gets the same condemnation by those who matter.000000