Laaltain

‘Civilizing’ Mission: Black Abaya Made Compulsory at Islamia University Bahawalpur

20 مئی، 2013

campus-talks
Islamia Uni­ver­si­ty Bahawalpur, the only pub­lic sec­tor uni­ver­si­ty of Bahawalpur and one of the old­est and largest in Pak­istan, has recent­ly made wear­ing the black abaya com­pul­so­ry for its female stu­dents of MBA depart­ment. Accord­ing to an offi­cial noti­fi­ca­tion at the end of March, uni­form was made com­pul­so­ry which includ­ed abaya or black gown with black dopat­ta for female stu­dents. Accord­ing to sources, the head of the respec­tive depart­ment took this deci­sion in an instant move after see­ing a female stu­dent in an inap­pro­pri­ate dress. While head of the depart­ment was dis­pleased with the dress of a cer­tain stu­dent, oth­er eye wit­ness­es do not think that the dress in ques­tion was unusu­al and inap­pro­pri­ate as such.

Stu­dents’ reac­tion to this admin­is­tra­tive move is mixed. Some favor it as a step to pro­mote piety and moral­i­ty while oth­ers see it as an exces­sive and regres­sive move to cur­tail basic free­doms. In any case this step must raise ques­tions about the pow­ers and role of admin­is­tra­tion. Is admin­is­tra­tion allowed to enforce dress code on adult stu­dents? Giv­en the whim­si­cal nature of the act, will such a prece­dent not lead to blur the line between what is jus­ti­fied and what is not?
IUB-notification
(Pub­lished in The Laaltin — May 2013)

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