AFRO-NETS> Swaziland's Parliament: Swaziland schools to ban mini-skirts

[Rana Badri <rbadri@equalitynow.org>]

Swaziland's Parliament: Swaziland schools to ban mini-skirts
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Hi,

I am forwarding this article to you, because I think it is the re-
sponsibility of the educated Africans, in particularly the health 
professionals to raise awareness about how AIDS is transmitted, and 
what kind of behaviour increases the risk of contracting it. 

I hope that the members of this list-serve in Swaziland, who are 
health professionals or activists working on educating the population 
to protect themselves from AIDS, can accelerate their effort. 

If there is a need, I am sure that we can all help by sending activ-
ists and health professionals in Swaziland some materials to trans-
late in their local language and distribute it in their community. If 
we can all unite, we can raise some money too to do that. Some of the 
statements and actions done by African governments and leaders are 
outrageously ignorant. How can we get anywhere if some of our Parlia-
ments are that ignorant! 

I don't mean to offend anyone, but Please lets do something to help 
Swaziland be aware of the *REAL* practices that leads to contracting 
HIV/AIDS instead of "beating around the bush."

Rana Badri
mailto:rbadri@equalitynow.org


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BBC Wednesday, 19 July, 2000, 14:00 GMT 15:00 UK 

Swaziland schools to ban mini-skirts

School girls in Swaziland are to be prevented from wearing mini-
skirts from the beginning of next year, in what the government is 
portraying as an attempt to halt the spread of AIDS. The House of 
Senate has already passed a motion seeking laws to end sexual rela-
tionships between teachers and their female pupils. 

But the government blames schoolgirls for enticing teachers with 
their short skirts.

The new law requires that girls aged 10 years old and above must wear 
knee-length skirts or face expulsion if they breach the ban. 

A quarter of Swaziland's population of one million is estimated to 
have have the deadly HIV virus and life expectancy is predicted to 
drop to 30 years from the present 38. 

Promiscuity 

Talking to the BBC, Education Director Sibusiso Mkhonda said there 
was a feeling that "the wearing of short skirts leads to males being 
attracted to kids and perhaps eventually leading to more cases of 
promiscuity". 

Explaining the link between short skirts and AIDS, Mkhonda said "If 
you are exposing your thighs some people may get attracted to that 
and make advances". 

In 1969, Swaziland banned all mini-skirts for morality reasons but 
the order lapsed because it was difficult to police dress codes in 
public. Education officials feel a ban in schools would be easier to 
enforce.

Law enforcement 

But a language teacher at Mvelamuve School in Lubombo region of South
Eastern Swaziland, Nozipho Dlamini, cast doubts over the implementa-
tion of the proposed laws.

She said, "I feel that it will be a problem to enforce a law like 
this one. It will mean that somebody will have to go around the 
school checking out on children if they are wearing the right lengths 
of skirts or not. What is too short? Dlamini posed, "I don't know". 

Swaziland, like its neighbours-South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana, 
is struggling with an AIDS crisis. 

But Swaziland's efforts to curb the disease have been questioned by 
health experts. 

While the mini-skirt debate continues to rage, the country's parlia-
ment has began debating another controversial piece of legislation 
considering the mandatory sterilisation of people infected with 
HIV/AIDS.

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