| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Dress code issued for schoolgirls in Haripur |
| 2019-09-15 |
| [DAWN] The district education office has made it mandatory for all girl students of government schools in Haripur to wear an abaya, gown or chador, drawing a mixed reaction from locals. A circular issued earlier this week by Samina Altaf, District Education Officer, asked all principals and headmistresses of government schools to ensure that girl students wore an abaya, gown or chador. "Instruct all students to use gown/abaya or chador to veil/conceal/cover up their-self in order to protect them from any unethical incident," the circular said. Repeated attempts to seek comments from the officer concerned were unsuccessful. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... one of her subordinates confirmed that the circular was genuine. "It was necessary to protect girl students from a growing number of complaints of eve-teasing and harassment," she said. "A good number of girl students have developed a habit of wearing dupatta or ’half chador’, which is not sufficient to cover their bodies," the official added. In reply to a question, she said since providing police protection to girl students at every nook and corner was not possible, the administration had decided to make it binding upon them to observe "proper purdah for their safety". Commenting on the circular, Umar Farooq, a social activist and office-bearer of Rawadari Tehrik, criticised the decision. "Instead of ensuring the safety of girl students, the authorities have bound them to dress against their will," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |