Some basic problems of ethnocentricity, discrimination, etc with some of these rules :
#3. tattered jeans and jeans with holes - [how many holes count? how about the number of tears?]
Besides, some poor students have and wear jeans that are "tattered" and "have holes" because they are poor, and not because they bought fashionable tattered jeans to flaunt. At some point in university, I used to be one such person.
#5. tight fitting jeans etc that reveal the contour of the body
scary especially for girls and ladies who might like to wear sweaters that natural hug the body or who like to wear dresses that are fitting rather than saggy. This especially because, going beyond forbidding exposure of sexualized body parts, it polices the clothed body! Even the form of the body, in its beauty or ugliness, should be hidden from view, presumably, because some men (perhaps women too) are unable to bring their hormones under control when they sight body contours even under a dress! For a federal institution in an urban multicultural city, this is scary. I can understand such a rule being "informally" enforced and actually naturally adhered to in conservative village settings.
#7. unkempt appearances, such as bushy hair and beards -
who defines "unkempt" - whose standards are applied?
and how do you distinguish bushy hair and beards from culturally and religious preferred styles of body decoration acceptable to the Sikhs, and some mallams whose identities are partly based on leaving bushy beards? I remember reading a prominent northern Nigerian elder once not only criticizing Wole Soyinka's hair a bushy but concluded that anybody with such hairstyle had a problem which adjective used should not be repeated here! What ethnocentricity!
this rule condemns the Yoruba "dada" or the Rasta hairdo. I am sorry that the Rastafari might have been excluded from this campus if they are not exempted from the definition of "unkempt"
#11. shirts without buttons or not properly buttoned, leaving the wearer bare-chested.
there are regular fashion wears with inner pieces (covering all of the chest) but with tops that are not meant to be buttoned, some not having buttons or having decorative buttons without buttonholes(often times both inner and outer pieces are sewn together). They are very stylish, but far from indecent by any reasonable definition of decency.
#12. wearing of ear-ring by male students & 13. plaiting or weaving of hair by male students
both #12 & #13 are very ethnocentric. for example, male Shango worshippers are thereby not allowed simply because they choose to worship the Shango deity; many people group from Central Africa and East Africa who wear earrings irrespective of gender are excluded. Many Fulani youth, with some of the most artistic body ornamentation styles in West Africa, who use rings in their culture of decoration are penalized and excluded. Their human rights are denied.
#14. wearing of colored eye glasses in the classroom except on medical grounds
- except on security grounds, it is so ridiculous. This is creating a problem where there is none. How many students were such glasses in class in the first place? Insignificant. security is the only reasonable ground for such a rule. Rulemaking old adult people should know that a stage of life called youth is real and should not be confused with their own staid elderhood! Religious people also should know and accept that there are people without religion or who have different religions - all of who are made, according to most religions, by the same Creator. They want to self-express themselves. It is natural and normal. The generation of my children call it "being cool". It is a stage. They soon pass over it. It does not make them dangerous or less serious or less God seeking.
#16. wearing trousers that stop between the ankle and the knee.
I have seen conservative Hausa pants that stop short of the ankle. I know young Islamic scholars in my neck of the wood who wear trousers that do not reach down to the knee, though with the white flowing gowns as the top. Their identity as Muslim cleric/scholars is actually partly defined by this type of dress, with a specific "alim" type cap to match. Would they be arrested if they come to ABU campus or let go?
Also, there is a particular dashiki type Yoruba hunter wear, which now has been turned into regular fashion ware, that has a pant that does not reach down to the ankle. I have one and wear it to Church and can wear to at a wedding or to a child's name-giving ceremony! That is how so proper it is. I will not be able to wear this were I to visit ABU! Ridiculous. Discriminatory. But being a man, I may actuall be allowed to go.
It's not just the body that is being policed here. Some of these rules police adolescence and youthfulness as a stage of life with its goals, its aspirations. They seek to sublimate youthfulness, vigour, style and class - all normal biological, physiological, and anthropological features of youthfulness and the youth! Mostly though, those who will come under the gavel are females. I can imagine the fashion police being helped by "radical" students to detain girls they deem to have contravened any of these rules based on whimsical interpretations! It is only too clear which of these rules will be enforced and on which gender the most.
Those who fashioned the policy did not seem to think beyond the specific moral code of their particular narrow denominational religious community. It does not show that the authors consulted ABU scholars - anthropologist or sociologist for suggestions. Perhaps they consulted some select religious scholars. Were representatives of students, staff, religious and non-religious people and lawyers, consulted before these rules were sanctioned by ABU? The author indicated in the document is Management. Did these rules pass through the Senate of the university? Does NUC have a right to countermand those rules that contravene basic human right?
These rules give an indication that that great institution is closing in on itself as an intolerant conservative and exclusionary organization. A huge chunk of the human population, many who by any definition would consider themselves to be concerned with decency, are not welcome! Very scary. Very scary.
Even if security and basic decency requirements are allowed for the document's rationale, quite a few of these rules seem to be in contravention of peoples human right. Most of them are exclusionary and clearly gender biased and religion laced. If they stand without modification, they portend future trouble for many hapless "non-compliant" students, staff, and visitor, especially, women - some select women. They would likely heighten division and non-native sense of insecurity on the campus.
Something much more reasonable, basic, legal and inclusive can certainly be devised to ensure basic decency than these poorly put together rules.
It will not be surprising if this ABU Management goes the whole hog and make all students wear uniforms and RENT out uniforms to all visitors to the campus. That would be a great way to satisfy the rules regarding dress.
/Femi Kolapo
Oga Michael:
I know there is a problem here between the demands on ABU as a FEDERAL university (as opposed to state or private institution.) The event of town and gown as it relates to the cultural dictates of the environs of location of a university still matter.
Many easterners have issues with this as it applies to UI for instance. These universities are located within specific regions and the intercourse between local community and university is unavoidable. Local cultural tastes differ and must be respected.
Whereas hijab may not be anathema for ABU because of the cultural dictates up there it may be so for say UI & UNN.( some if my course mates in graduate school in the US for instance dressed in Middle East head dress aroynd campus ( Im not sure with full hijab but full hijab is now routinely comnon in the streets of London with slits only for eyeballs.)
You are right to be apprehensive about use of hijab up there but it IS a legitimate dress code up there ( for instance if the student is admitted for say Islamic studies)
This was the sensibility that informed hypocrite Sani Abacha ( the one who allegedly died in the company of a prostitute )deciding that ladies who dressed in trousers in public in Abuja be flogged. Only a dictator could go that far!
The founding Nigerian nationalists understood this very well when they stated each region should westernize at its own pace. Students and parents who oppose ABUs decision (even if they are notherners) may choose to educate their wards in the South and the Middle Belt.That would be these regions manpower gains. The demographic osmosis or reflux will ensure they are vanguard for change in the North in the longer term.
This is the quirky thing about democracy no one can force others to develop at their own pace and people may choose other models apart from the western in any area of develooment. Much part of the North prefers the Arabian cultural model if not fully but as counterpoint to the excesses of full western mode. In a democracy they have the right to. They may also choose to balance their Arabic preference with Chinese rather than western.
In the South we are more comfortable with westernization but that's due to a long historic ( and continuing) engagement with the West rather than Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------
From: 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: 01/05/2019 10:03 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ahmadu Bello University: Dress Code
Please don't get me wrong, Okey. I am more conservative than you think and I have lived in America for almost four decades. I once sent one of my language/education students home when I went to observe him and he was wearing a pair of jean-pants while student-teaching even though with a nice shirt and standard tie. My student teachers must be professional. Even as a professor, I always visited them in complete suits, even to my discomfort and irritation, and I also did so when teaching them. But all these are commonsensical, not necessarily based on the Mosaic model of the "Ten Commandments." I think a generic announcement of "We expect our students to be decent in their grooming and public appearances" would be sufficient; and individual programs like education, law, medicine, etc., could have more specific guidelines for how their students' carry themselves in public. ABU should transcend this level of rustic simplicity. It's okay for a high school to do so or even some private religious institutions, but let's be real: this is just not good for an institution of ABU status.
MOA
On Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 4:15:53 PM GMT+1, Okechukwu Ukaga <ukaga001@umn.edu> wrote:
My esteemed broda, I obviously disagree. In your so called civilized society, naked people are found in strip clubs and brothels, not on university campuses. If folks are unwilling to self regulate to maintain a minimum level of decency in terms of dressing, university has both the right and the responsibility to take appropriate steps. After all, university degrees are awarded not just for academic achievement but also character, etc. Notably, dress code is not unusual in universities, even in the West. When I was in school of business in the late 80s for my MBA, business students were expected and required to dress in ways consistent with our profession. So it is not unusual to see business students and law students going to classes, etc in more formal attire than say soil science students. And in some cases there are strict guidelines like no jeans, no sleepers, no T-shirts, etc. Isn't that a kind of dress code? So even within the same university there is not only an expected minimum standard for the whole, but component units can have their own additional guidelines, norms and expectations. Before zeroing in on the last part of my contribution that you quoted here, you will do well to read and consider the preceding parts that formed the foundation for that last part.
Regards,
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