Let Them Ban Our Jeans, We'll Wear Breezy Dhotis

This photo, with young women wearing the mundu, veshti, lungi to college and posing with confidence that can give you swag goals, is buzzing online. This is their response to the dress code proposed by the Muslim Educational Society (MES) at Nadakkavu in Kozhikode, Kerala.

For reasons best known to them, the college authorities have felt the need to crack the whip on trendy fashion. They want the young women to give up ‘tight jeans, short tops, and leggings’ and come to college wearing a ‘uniform’. They will  have to wear salwar-kurtas/ churidars and an overcoat. It is fair to seek clarity on what overcoat works well in tropical Kerala weather.

The rule comes into force from July 8, when the academic session begins for the first-year students. It is not yet known if the senior students can wear what they want, or if they will also have to re-jig their college wardrobe. Can the teachers wear what they want? What about the male teachers and staff? So many, questions I say! Read more in this Indian Express report. 

However, while the outrage has been subtle enough to escape notice, the picture of the mundu-wearing young women protesting so elegantly does drive home a valid point.

Nothing busts moral policing and patriarchy than an intelligent, witty response, and this one from this group of college students is a good burn! Consider this, the culturally rooted dhoti/mundu/lungi worn "half-mast” like the macho Malayali men do, shows more sexy leg than any boring jeans ever can. The cotton mundu is way cooler than jeans, literally!

Of course, there is no scientific correlation between what a woman wears to college or work and the amount of learning or work that is accomplished. It is not yet known if the humble jeans have any effect on the brain of the wearer; or worse, do they turn a woman into a ‘characterless vixen’? But why stress on logic when you can tap into the bottomless pit of moral outrage.

By Karuna John