The Ban on Wardrobes

By Furyal Khattak

Edited by Haya AlDabbagh and Farah AlTakrouri

 

The dress code rules from the 2012-2013 school year were obliged to be followed in the American International School of Riyadh. These rules included the following, no skirts above knee length without something underneath, no sleeveless shirts, no clothing that promotes drugs or any inappropriate content. The country that our school resides in without doubt affects why the dress code is as it is. We are living in a Muslim based country which requires us to be more conservative by the way we dress in and out of school. The school has banned these things on the religious based laws of Saudi Arabia. Outside of compounds and schools, women are not allowed to wear what they would like without being covered by an abaya.

 

The female student body is enraged that the school has banned tights. The Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia has claimed that young men were getting too distracted by girls in middle school wearing leggings and that it would lead them onto the wrong path. Other schools in the US and in the UK have also banned leggings. Schools in the US have banned tights without any claim to be because of religious laws. Many different schools are now using the same excuse to ban tights. They feel that by letting women wear tights, they are distracting men. Womens’ rights activists claim that instead of making women take all the blame for tights, they need to teach men that women are more than sexual objects.

 

“Personally, tights worn by women in the school don’t really affect me as much but I can see how it affects some other religious people because it can be defacing to some other more religious islamic people in the school. (sic)” claims Abdullah Al-Banyan, an Islamic student. Abdullah speaks for many of the other Muslim males at AIS-R who also feel this way about this issue. Many male students that attend AIS-R say that the ban on tights was reasonable due to the country that we have been living in. Most of the pressure coming from dress code is put onto women instead of men.

 

“I might agree with some of the dress code rules because some people go too far with what they wear to school and it just makes the school look bad.” says Farah Al-Takrouri.  There are some students and parents who think the dress code is good for the school. Many students realize that without a dress code the school would not appear as formal as it does at the time being. Some students believe the dress code being improved was for the greater good of the school. It helps the school appear nicer to the Ministry.

 

Students had time to adjust to the new dress code rule of ban on tights. When asked if the new rule of ripped jeans being added in during the middle of the school year was okay with them, most replied like Sara Fathala. “No, they should've changed it at the beginning of this year or the beginning of next year.” Sara, one of the more conservative student at AIS-R says. When asked if students supported the idea of a new rule being added in in the middle of the year, they all said what Sara said. She and many other students think the school is pushing them to change things too quickly.  

 

73.7% of the 8th grade claims that the dress code policy affects how long it takes them to get ready. This is a very large number considering the number of people who attend 8th grade, this number can be minimized if AIS-R is to inform the students of the new dress code at the end of the school year so parents and students can shop accordingly. This may also take time away from how long it takes them to get ready in the morning because their wardrobe will contain clothes that the dress code does not restrict.

 

Many students have only been dress coded once in their whole time at AIS-R “[I was dress coded for] ripped jeans.” claims Khalil El Hajal. The new dress code banning ripped jeans which was created and added into the AIS-R system has caused many students to be dress coded for the first time. The ban on tights, which was thought through and proceeded to become a rule in the year after the students were informed has had little, almost no incidents in the last months. This shows that when students have more time to adjust themselves to new rules, there are less chances of them being broken.

 

Mr. Ricks claims the teacher dress code takes time away from his life at home. “You know, it’s eliminated some valuable time that I could spend with my family or children, [but instead] that I have to spend preparing because of the dress code.”  Mr. Ricks speaks for a lot of teachers who also have families. By forcing them to only be able to wear certain attire, they are taking time away from their lives at home. Students also feel this way about their parents and time at home. It takes away from time that could be used to study or do extracurricular activities in and out of school.

 

Many students feel that instead of adding in new rules for dress code, they should just add in uniforms instead of constantly banning new trends that arise in the school. “I think that the school should just like, you know, give us uniforms or something instead of just banning everything we wear.(sic)” Eman Nadeem, a student who has been attending AIS-R since second grade. This would help both students and parents when picking what attire would be appropriate for school. In cases, private schools have changed from a dress code to a uniform in order to maintain their students not leaning on the lines of being unacceptable.