Dressing and rape
It is quite unique to be well dressed; this is because your dressing (appearance) is a way of saying who you are without having to speak. The key to understanding what constitutes modesty in dress is to examine the attitudes and intents of the heart. Those whose hearts are inclined towards God will make every effort to dress modestly, decently, and appropriately. Those whose heart are inclined towards self, will dress in a manner designed to draw attention to themselves with little or no regards for the consequences to themselves or others.
It is quite unfortunate the way and manner people take dressing to be these days. This especially goes to women and ladies entirely. It is good however, for a wife to dress in a seductive way in the house for the husband to see and admire her but not to the public.
Both religions acknowledged decent dressing and as well, how to appear in a more acceptable way in the public, but this rule have been violated by many.
Women have the best and unique way of creation such that at the sight of them, you’ll know they are fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
It is disheartening these days to see how ladies dress to seek public attraction and attention. Some can go as far as appearing only on inner wears (half naked) publicly. This is mostly seen in music albums. It is difficult these days to see a Nigerian musician launch a musical video album without seeing ladies half naked. And the surprising part of it is that the male musicians are usually well dressed but surrounded by half-naked dressed ladies. To the ladies on the other hand, they are proud to appear half-dressed on screen or with inner wears just to make the world know they have arrived and for the album to get massive sale. To them, it is a way of beautifying the song but in other way round, it is toxic to the society even though that’s what the majority wants to see. All these attitudes are being copied by the young teens and as they grow, they practice it.
A famous female musician once had a thought about what she can do to see herself having a massive sale and a boom for her next music album. The idea came to her to go naked on screen while singing. And I believe when she tries doing that, she will have a massive sale and the video will go viral because many will like to see her naked, only that she will bring shame to her family.
At times, the rape issue making headlines on the national dailies are not often the male’s fault but due to the ill-mannered way women dress in public. We live in a society where you see young ladies dressed half naked even to places of worship and the leaders won’t correct the attitude just for the sake of not losing their members. We live in a world where you see an elderly man trying to correct this error but downgraded and tagged “old school”. We live in a world where you see a young lady tries to dress in a responsible way but would be called names and tagged “holy holy”.
I saw an instance where in a place of worship, a lady well dressed with headgear as a covering on her head sat in front of two ladies whose hair were uncovered. They made jest of her and said “abeg madam your head tie they block us” in an embarrassing way and laughed at her. She was demoralised literally by the way and manner the ladies behind spoke to her, leading to others turning to see what was going on, which was quite embarrassing and dehumanising.
We live in a world where the poor and average family background ladies tries to show off by appearing half naked on streets and higher places of learning like universities, displaying pictures of fake life that doesn’t portray their family background on social media etc. They want to show the public “they belong, or they’ve arrived”. On the contrary, those from rich backgrounds, dress modestly and some wouldn’t even want to show they are from a rich family from the way they dress. They live a simple life.
My point here is, dress in modesty, for you will be addressed the way you dress.
If we all, will be cooperative, we can put an end to such mess by not endorsing it and not practising it thereby saying no to rape. But until we change before this will happen else, massive rape is still at the corner.
Miss Hannah Gmadapuya Bawa
Paiko, Niger State Nigeria bawahann@gmail.com