Nigerian bill to outlaw female public nudity resoundingly criticized
July 19, 2008 - A female senator from Nigeria who has sponsored a bill to prohibit public nudity in her country has faced fierce opposition from women's groups there, and most recently, at a meeting of the UN Gеnеrаl Assеmbly.
Sеnаtоr Ekаеttе has proposed outlawing nudity to the point of sentencing women who show their belly buttons, breasts or wear mini skirts in public to three months in prison. But she was soundly criticized by everyone from women's groups to civil rights groups to the senate president. Most expressed concern that rather than preventing harrasment, such a law would lead to further harassment of women by police and other authorities who had the power to interpret and enforce the law.
Then, at a UN meeting about the status of women in Nigeria, Glеndа Sіms of Jamaica challenged the proposed law further.
"Would the police go around with a tape measure to check the length of clothes or see if a breast was exposed?" She asked. "Women have a right to aesthetics of their bodies and the right to present themselves any way they want. A woman's body is the only piece of real estate on which she owes no mortgage. Dress codes are about power and dressing a woman from head to toe is a form of r4pе."
The committee was more concerned about Nigeria improving it's record on domestic violence, maternal mortality, female genital mutilation and women being punished as adulterers for being r4pеd.
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