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| Sunday, 9 February 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The Politics of dress The imposition of a dress code by some educational institutions on women entering school premises, has raised a storm of controversy. Jayanthi Liyanage sought out the views of officials, parents and feminists. Is it fair to impose the dress code of saree on mothers entering school premises for teacher-parent meetings or any other school event?
Why make the saree a must for us, was the belligerent plaint of many professional, work-laden mothers who would have far preferred a more travel-convenient attire of frock, skirt or long pants. Why dosen't dress code extend to the male counterparts, they wondered. Men could enter a school even in shorts, tight jeans, sweatsuits and muscle shirts. As can be expected in an issue of this nature, parents, feminists principals and Education Officials expressed wide-ranging and divided views. Women activists were very strong in voicing their protest at what they clearly stated was an infringement of a woman's fundamental right, encompassing a woman's freedom of movement and the freedom to dress in a garment of their choice. "As a mother of a child myself, I am absolutely opposed to any kind of dress code being imposed on me when I am required to visit the school of my child and the schools have no legal standing to do it," says Kumudini Samuel, Joint Director, Women and Media Collective, adding that the women's movement would be happy to challenge this imposition by bringing in a fundamental rights application to contest it. "How can anyone except the woman herself decide on what is appropriate to be worn by her?," she questions. "The saree can be worn in different ways by different women. What about the Burgher and Muslim women? Do they also have to wear the saree?" She also points out that the saree brings in added discrimination in that the rich mothers come attired in attractive sarees while the low-incomed, working mothers come in drab, worn-out sarees. "Why should the working mothers in uniforms be put to the hassel of going back home to dress in saree when they need to go to school? Why not the schools get the male principals, teachers and fathers to come to school in sarongs and vesthis!" "The Ministry circulars do not impose a dress code on parents", explains N.M.L.K.B. Navaratne, Provincial Director of Education, Central Province. "But, they define criteria to construct a learning environment which does not harm the moral growth of students. The dress of those entering the school environment naturally comes under scrunity". A court of law prevents its entrants from being partially-clad and enforces them to be fully-dressed in an appropriate and decent manner, he points out. "A school is a similar place of scholarly dignity which one must protect by being mindful of one's dress protocol". This protocol apparently is not extended to parents making their daily morning and afternoon trudge accompanying children to and from school as in such instances parents are not allowed to come within the school gates. But the issue of dress gets exacerbated when the school invites them to come inside the premises for meetings and other school functions, and the security officials at the gates turn away mothers coming in short skirts and sleeveless or cut-away jackets. "Mothers coming to our school have to come through the Richmond College grounds and we have made it imperative that they should wear the saree", explains the Principal, Rippon College, Galle. "Decency and decorum is the key code of dress as we don't want any unnecessary problem whipped up among male or female students because a visitor wore a revealing garment"."Though the Department of Education insists on teachers of Government schools abiding by a code of conduct, there is nothing of the sort enforced on parents or outsiders", says A.J.Y. Sirisena, Deputy Director of Education, Western Province. "But each school has the right to impose its own code of dress for outsiders, to protect the safety, moral well-being and educational advancement of its students". "Is it decent to come to a school in skimpy or party attire which can defile and corrupt the minds of adolescent students?", he questions. "Parental attire in school must be appropriate to our country's ethical and cultural values and should not damage the dignity of one's children studying there". Similar to the female teacher, code-bound to wear the saree and the male teacher wearing the national dress or long trousers coupled with shirt, each school can exercise flexibility to vary its dress code in keeping with its ethnic and cultural outlook. Accordingly, wearing head scarves becomes an accepted code for teachers and mothers in Muslim schools while for those in Buddhist schools, the dress norm becomes the saree. But D.M.A.B. Dissanayake, Additional Secretary - Education, Western Province, brings out a crucial angle to the issue, saying, "All schools should adopt a unified policy and should not let ethnic and cultural differences filter into the national education system". Whichever races or ethnicities a school may harbour, it should adhere to a national code of conduct, and not to its own cultural code, he emphasises. "Currently, Colombo has shown increases of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims ethnicity components in different areas of its population. For example, Clifton B.M.V. and Presbyterian College record an increase of Muslims. Are we to insist that these schools now adopt the Muslim dress code"? Schools must be nationally unified as educational institutions and not as centres of culture and religion, Dissanayake points out. "Religious and cultural values can be inculcated outside the schools. Bringing them inside the education system of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country such as ours could only lead to ethnic and religious discord and further national division". Do the international schools practise any such cultural codes, he questions. "In the village schools, the situation is similar. You can enforce codes, but who is there to supervise adherence? Men can come in all sorts of attire to the village school grounds". Is it necessary to arrive at a nationally accepted "Statement of Modesty" for mothers, or even for fathers, of Sri Lanka? And be sure this dress code would not be misconstrued as in the case of the two Singaporean schoolgirls, who were asked to remove their head scarves in school, as the habit was seen as contributing to "racial disharmony"? It is said that the way one dresses is one of the ways in which one expresses oneself and should be protected by the same constitutional guarantees of privacy, liberty and free speech. But the same statement becomes equally fragile when pitted with "offensive and inappropriate clothing", worn specially by women and perceived as carrying the potential of distracting and polluting young minds and harming their safety and moral well-being. Even the saree, with which both ancient South Indian men and women colourfully adorned themselves until men changed to predominantly white with vesthi (dhoti), and which the olden day South Indian philosophy commands women to wear uncovering the navel and 40 per cent of the stomach in revering the source of creativity and life, could "truly be a treat for idle spectators", when the wearer ignores its more modest drapes. One also cannot help noting that when it comes to considering which should be worn where, the society's implicitly judgemental attitudes with regard to decency, decorum and culture, are made all the more explicit. As Karen Stimson expresses in 'The Politics of Dress', "The severity of restrictions placed on our dress is directly proportional to the degree in which we exceed our cultural norms". To which, an American Civil Liberties personality adds, "Discretion ends where religious or gender discrimination begins". Perhaps, we could look at the whole issue in a broader perspective. Rather than encourage gendering children within social forms which present males and females within the stereo typical capsules, where the male is surveyor and the female surveyed, we could reduce harm inflicted on our children by more social-friendly gender education. Empowerment, rather than escape, is a good goal to pursue in education and parenting, but this undoubtedly needs a broader social change. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
This debate has been rather vigorously pursued in our reader's column
for quite a lengthy while throwing up many socially-relevant and
morally-pertinent questions and gridlocks. There are some who seek to
define an ideal "Statement of Modesty and Propriety" for parents
and adult family members of students visiting schools.
