A fashionista during CHOGM side event in Kigali
Amid hot debate on decency in clothing, the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy has shared results of a survey which suggests how men, women and young people can wear and go out without causing outcry or vice versa.
During Ubyumva ute, a radio talk show at KT Radio, August 17, Pontien Urayeneza, in charge of historical and cultural research at Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy quoted a new research that shows standards as per the audience’s perception of culture.
According to the survey, 68.5% of Rwandans wear indecently, and those include women who make 44.6%, boys 25% and men 5.4%.
Respondents indicated that wearing properly means putting on clothes that fit the person, in accordance to their body shape, without showing thigh and private parts in case they are wearing dresses or skirts.
They are also clothes which are not tight on the body to an extent that one can see the parts that are supposedly covered and this also applies to transparent clothes where you can see the body.
The clothes worn on pocket down are also qualified as indecent.
Angelique Gatarayiha, a model said that she does not understand the basis of this research, given that Rwanda, during the period before and during the colonial era, Rwandans were not necessarily clothed completely, but were relying on some small materials made from animals or plants.
“If today we talk about nudity, we contradict ourselves because in the past, it was even way exaggerated,” Gatarayiha said.
Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy requests parents to mind their children’s clothing, and to the school, they plead to inculcate education on decent clothing and cultural values.
To the politicians, they request to carry campaigns on decent clothing.
