The government of Sudan has adopted a new dress code that requires women to wear Islamic dress consisting of a headscarf and a robe or dress that covers their arms and legs. Public order police will enforce the new code.
“Women who enter Sudan through any ports and entry points should be dressed in a manner reflecting Islamic values. This condition for entering should be implemented in coordination with the aviation and external affairs ministries,” read a statement from the Public Order and Appearance Committee, which drafted the new law.
The mostly Christian and animist women living in southern Sudan are expected to resist the new code, while most women in the largely Muslim north have already complied.
Along with the new dress code, the Public Order and Appearance Committee also demanded that “indecent expressions,” “inappropriate songs,” and “unfit pictures,” be removed from public buildings and spaces and replaced with Koranic verse.
