Aranya Doloi
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It seems St. Francis College for Women in Hyderabad found a new quick-fix way to finding a great husband – just ‘kurtas below knee length with sleeves’. Right from beginning of the academic year on August 1 this year, the management of St Francis’ Degree College, one of the oldest and reputed colleges in Hyderabad, had been insisting that the students strictly follow a dress code while coming to the college. All students have been ordered to wear kurtas that are below knee length with sleeves to get good marriage proposals. The dress-code for students as mentioned in the college’s prospectus stated, ‘simplicity and modesty in the manner of dress in order to foster a congenial academic atmosphere’ and ‘sleeveless, cold shoulders and short tops are not permitted’.
The students, however, have had enough of restriction as they took to protests against the implausible order, labeling it as being “regressive, backward and outdated”. More than 150 students, who took the dress code as a humiliation registered their protests on September 16, demanding that the code be removed and they be given freedom to choose their dressing. The students assembled in front of the college, blocked the thoroughfare, and held placards and raised slogans against what they described as draconian dress code. Even parents of some of the students joined the protest. With the situation going out of hand, the college management called some student representatives for talks and after prolonged negotiations, the management agreed to relax the new dress code.
The agitation came after a video went viral on social media, showing several women being denied entry into the college after the length of their kurtis was an inch above their knee. The security was also shown tugging at their clothes. When asked for a reason, the students were told that the rules were being enforced so that the students “could get good marriage proposals” and also because “the male staff is uncomfortable” looking at the shape of their thighs. All these in the presence of a mere 20 faculty members in the all-girls college!
This highlights the stark irony of the country who on one hand is trying to reach the moon, but a few still limit their thoughts to things as petty as women’s clothes.
