A group known as the Serve With Skirts Movement has asked the federal government to allow female corps members wear skirts during their mandatory service year.
The protesters said the wearing of trousers by females “evokes immorality.”
On Wednesday, members of the movement converged at the Unity Fountain in Abuja carrying placards which read: “There is a difference between the world and the daughters of God”, “Our sisters cannot dress like men, they should be decently covered” and “We are not worldly we are true children of God” among others.
Speaking with TheCable Lifestyle, Udochi Emmanuel Baba, a lawyer and one of the leaders of the movement, said so many female corps members have been “embarrassed and harassed” because they refused to wear trousers.
Baba said the law establishing the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) “has not clearly stated what the uniform should be.”
“The reason why we are here today is because year after year our female corpers posted to various states are being embarrassed, they are decamped, de-kitted and sent out of the camp on the grounds that they are putting on trousers and we know that it is a breach of their fundamental human rights as provided for in section 38 (1) of the constitution of our country,” she said.
“These trousers they are showing in the banners here, are evoking immorality in the camps and we cannot take it anymore. This was not so in the beginning, way back in the 1970s and 1980s we had our mothers wearing skirts and we want to go back to that.
“We have asked for exemption severally. NYSC has not given that as an option, they have made it a compulsory one-year service for everyone below the year of 30 and they are mandated to wear those clothes.”
When asked what they will do if their requests are not met, the lawyer said: “We may ask need to ask for redress in the court.”
Narrating her ordeal, Patience Noble, a corps member, said she has not graduated from the scheme since 2016 when she was deployed to serve in Ebonyi.
“I was posted to Ebonyi state for my NYSC and when I got there, I told them that I will want to wear my skirts and serve the nation. As a citizen of my country, I have the right to serve the nation just like every other graduate has,” she said.
“They insisted that I wear this trouser or leave the camp. During the camp there were lots of insults and humiliation – one of military tore the skirts I was wearing on my body.”
The corps member said she was told that she would not be given a certificate until she wears a trouser.
In December 2017, Amasa Firdaus, a law student at the time, was not called to the bar because she allegedly broke the dress code by wearing a hijab.
After an outrage, Firdaus was finally called to the bar in July 2018 – after seven months.
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They should be given the right to wear skirts, forcing them against moral rights is totally unacceptable. The government should need to this course and act swiftly.
Christians world over should rise up to stand for the truth.
Our sisters should be given the right to wear skirt in the nation its our foundemental human right of every citizen so I didnt not see why they should not allow it I Nigeria.
As long as the skirt does not impede their service, they should be allowed. I was equally humiliated 2010 when I refused to wear what I considered ‘ abominable’ as the Holy bible puts it. Though not decamped, I was placed under house arrest with tough conditions. I was ridiculed, harassed and embarrassed by both corps members and soldiers for what is supposed to be my moral right. This has got to stop!
May the Almighty God intervene. This is a daylight fight between the devil and children of God and people don’t seem to understand. Yet, we will still expect sound economy, etc from God even when we do not honour God on simple issues like this.
I concur with your advocacy…
Let us face d fact,how can a female corps member will b wearing skirt to perform paramilitary activities in d camp.Is it not a way of exposing herself to d male corps member which is immorality.
Dress code should be free as anyone desires but decent and moral. No revealing of parts of the body.
May God richly bless the initiators of this movement. I also faced a lot of such humiliation when I served in Enugu in 2002 but God prevailed while I was being sent out from the camp despite that the colour of my skirts rhyme with those in trousers. It is high time for such Movement because many Sisters have been denied of service. FG should know that the Word of God is greater than the law of a nation because God has said it thousands of years ago before NYSC law was established that ” a woman must not wear anything that pertains to a man” or “a man wearing anything that pertains to a woman”. But it was perverted, they give trouser (man’ clothing) to a woman and knicker (a woman’s under wear according to Dictionary meaning) to the men to wear. They should remember that God did not change a bit, but it is we Humans and Civilisation s that changes.
I disagree with this, how will they wear skirts and by doing those exercises they do on the camp? Besides do you know that wearing skirt will make them face the risk of being rape?