#UAEDressCode: A Tool for Judgement, or Education? || Muslimah Media Watch

In reaction to what seems like a rising dress code violations in public places, two Emirati ladies, Hanan Al Rayes and Asma Al Muhairi, decided to launch a Twitter campaign to prod people to respect certain norms around clothing…

While the tweets keep stressing on the point that “the campaign aims for respecting the culture and dressing decently,” it has to some extent used a discourse that feels racist and sexist towards women and foreign women in particular. Using words such as “repulsive” and “uncivilized” brings the question of how women are looked at in this part of the world,  giving the sense that they are judged from the outside, something that the ladies who worked on the campaign need to pay attention to. So rather than focusing on how “immodest” women’s clothes appear, it would more sense to stress on the openness of the Arab-Islamic culture in the UAE, and the tolerant nature of the community here, and how important it is for everyone to understand the values and culture of the other. Instead of using an “offensive” campaign that represents women in “an unpleasant way,” it would be much better to use a discourse that attracts people to the culture rather than creating hatred for it.

It also looks like the campaign does not call for “women’s modesty” only, but also men’s. In a reply to a tweet dated on the 12^th June, user @UAEDressCode says: “men are included to apply the dress code. Not apparently topless for example.”…

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