Traditional leaders in Melut County of Upper Nile deplore public indecent dressing

September 10, 2010 (MELUT) — A traditional leadership council in Melut county of Upper Nile state has condemned what it called inappropriate dressing in the public, mostly practiced by teenagers.

This came following a report that a group of young men on Thursday beat up a young lady, identified as Regina James Thon, allegedly for her inappropriate dressing while leaving Melut Market back to her village.

She said she was attacked by the young men who accused her of trying to seduce men into having sex with her through her “indecent dress.” “They stopped me and told me to remove my clothes because the way I was dressed, it was as if I wanted to walk naked,” the 19-year-old told the local police.

Sultan Ayong Deng, a traditional leader at Melut traditional court centre on Friday told an audience that the indecent dressing was not acceptable as it contravened cultural values.

The decision was backed by the Commissioner of Melut County, Akuoc Teng Diing, who supported the position of the traditional leaders, saying “any dressing against the public eyes is not acceptable and as government we support position of the traditional leaders.”

“This is one of the practices that we as government cannot encourage. It brings bad image to our culture,” said Diing, shortly after arrival from Malakal at UNMIS helicopter landing site.

Quizzed by the local police during interrogation, Regina said she was afraid, and so did what she was told by removing her clothes and people began to mock her.

Juac Thon, a police officer handling the case said Regina told them that the young men were punishing her for allegedly dressing in an alluring way with the intention of passing on the HIV virus, a claim she denied. “They said I wanted to spread HIV, yet they didn’t know my status,” she said.

“Among rural southern communities, elders sensitized by HIV/AIDs authorities are trying to fight HIV, but their methods, which often involve punishing women perceived to be immoral, are misguided,” said Akec Kuol Miyen, a community health worker in the area.

“Communities believe in upholding moral values but while having moral[ility] is good, people have rights and when you punish them for wearing certain clothes… you defeat your cause,” added Miyen.

Aguer Thon Dau, a community elder at the court, said he believed returning to ancient cultural values is the best way to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and he and several other elders have been encouraging locals to punish any “inappropriately” dressed women.

“If women start dressing decently no man will have to look at them and people will only have their wives. The way they are dressing today, they are leading young men astray,” he added.

Abdullah Omer, another elder from northern Sudan who is running a small scale business in the town, also blamed women’s choice of clothing for putting local communities at risk. “If you find a man sleeping with many women, it is because those women have attracted him in one way or another,” he said. He further said that “such behavior brings a lot of concerns into the communities and that something needs to be done before it becomes too late.”

Local authorities in most southern states are however fighting such negative attitude towards women and trying to educate the local communities to behave more responsibly and with more respect for women’s rights. “When you punish women for dressing indecently, then it is like you are putting the responsibility of making sure you stay free of HIV on others,” said Deng Mawien Dut, an official with the Government of Southern Sudan from Juba.

“First and foremost it is your responsibility and people must be made to know this. We have tried to educate people that somebody’s clothing is not an invitation to have sex,” he said.

Maika Lisok Arona, Deputy Director for monitoring and evaluation framework from the Juba based HIV/AIDS commission, said each state is obliged to form an HIV/ AIDS committee and coordinate with legal experts and police officers to explain to the elders and locals the consequences of violence against women.

“Now some of them know what they have been doing is gender-based violence if it can be justified. You cannot beat a woman because she wears transparently or half naked with assumption that she has AIDs that is why she dressed like that to attract men. May be that is what she likes and has been allowed by her parents,” he said.

Arona added that local people needed to be educated about the correct ways of fighting the spread of HIV. “The way they are doing it, they are doing more damage because some people are being criminalized and discriminated against in the process,” he said.

“Young men in rural areas need education for it appears efforts of community workers seem to be paying off,” said Arona, adding, he did not believe in flogging women because of the way they may be dressed.

“What are you saying when you tell people a woman in a short skirt wants sex? You are telling them also that it is good to rape such a woman because she wanted sex. We have heard cases where men have raped women and then said it was because they were putting on miniskirts. It is bad and I can’t support it,” he said.

(ST)