No matter how bad you think your life is, at least you don’t live in Uganda . Women might soon be forced to follow a strict dress code, while men won’t be able to watch Beyonce on their TVs (or find porn on the Internet).
It’s a war on sexiness, courtesy of Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo . The new laws are being called “draconian,” and those in violation of these new anti-sexy rules could face heavy fines or even jail time.
The legislation includes a measure against women’s clothing, which cannot include “any attire which exposes intimate parts of the human body” or anything “above the knee” with the steep threat of arrest, even “if a woman wears a miniskirt.”
The legislation could also see a huge ban on TV shows, certain broadcasts, and films, depending on how “sexy” they are. Quite plainly, the proposal states, “Television should not broadcast a sexy person,” with Lokodo specifically citing examples like Beyonce and Madonna (???).
Then of course, there’s the problem of Internet pornography. The legislation is actually called The Anti-Pornography Bill and proposes that anyone who accesses pornography on the Internet could be fined up to 10 million Ugandan shillings (roughly $3,800), be jailed up to 10 years, or both.
And yes, Lokodo will be watching you.
“On the internet, we’re going to put a monitoring system so we know who has watched which website and we know who has watched pornographic material,” he said.
Lokodo, a former Catholic priest defrocked (fired) by The Vatican over his involvement in politics, says that the measure is meant to solve Uganda’s growing “immorality problem” as well as prevent women children against exploitation.
Fun fact: Uganda has actually banned the mini-skirt before … under the dictator Idi Amin.
Second fun fact: There’s actually a Twitter campaign against the proposal, which you can follow by searching the hashtag #SaveMiniSkirt .
#SaveMiniSkirt in #Uganda , gov’ts don’t have the right to dictate what it’s citizens can wear! @ un @ amnesty @ hrw
— Meeha Riv (@peacearoni) April 8, 2013
That is a violation of womens rights #saveminiskirt
— Sabrina Smith(@SabrinaSmitth) April 7, 2013
Does the Earth really need one more nonsense prohibition? Uganda should not go BACK in TIME! #saveminiskirt ! Greetings from Turkey…
— Deniz Demircan (@NazliiDeniz) April 7, 2013
What do you think of Uganda’s anti-sexy, anti-Beyonce legislative proposals?
[Image via: arvzdix / Shutterstock.com ]