GOING BACK TO THE ROOT; THE IRONY OF INDECENT DRESSING



The result of Indecent dressing



My curiosity about the movement of the world brought about this topic and the entire article. In the early 80s when I was still very young, the kind of dress people wore were quiet different to what I see them put on this days. The mode of dressing in vogue is seen by religionists and moralists as indecent and has been seriously preached against. Indecent dressing is defined by a scholar as a social malady that ridicules the person and is likely to shock or offend people. It exposes parts of the body, usually sexual organs, which normally should be covered. A decent dressing on the other hand elicits respect and protects the person’s dignity.

The Indecent dressing in this part of the world was said to be copied from the western culture, because it was never part of the African culture. Though I have not been to America or Europe to know how they dress over there, but I have seen on Television times without number. Hardly will you see a white woman dressed the way our women dress in this country in the name of Fashion.

Religious leaders have taken it upon themselves to preach against indecent dressing in our society. Speaking at this year’s pre-Ramadan lecture of the Al-Fatih-ul-Quareeb Islamic society of Nigeria held in Lagos recently, Sheik Ahmad Al-Naffy Al-Mubarak said cleansing the society of immoral dressing should start from the family.

He posited that most of the negative vices in the society today can be traced to the carelessness of parents in taking serious look at what their wards put on. Al-Mubarak said indecent dressing has led to rape, molestation and prostitution as well as unwanted pregnancies with its attendant effects on the society.

F.U. Nnadi, a catholic priest wrote that; in our society today, along the streets and in the house, in the church or higher institution, it is very common to see some people go almost nude all in the name of modern fashion. According to Richard (1980), they parade themselves without shame as they expose the vital organs of their physical frame to looker. It is not only the ladies who dress indecently today in our place, as even boys do. But my greatest surprise is why the preaching has not been working since every Nigerian either goes to Church, Mosque or Shrine.

The reason for the indecent dressing these days is very simple; people are going back to the root. I will use a circle to explain my point, when you start tracing a circle from a particular point it will surely end at the same point.

Human existence started with nakedness when there was no cloth of any kind to cover our body during the time of Adam and his wife Eve. After some time the use of leave to cover was discovered and it keeps going on like that until recent time that people started dancing to the tune of diminishing return.

I want to conclude here by saying, people should not be blamed for indecent dressing, sooner they will start the use of leave to cover only their private part and finally they will end up working around the street absolutely naked, because that was how we started our lives as human and it is not a crime if we end up that same way.