It’s been an interesting week in Uganda. On Monday, President Yoweri Museveni signed a controversial anti-gay bill
into law that instituted harsh punishments for those convicted of
engaging in “aggravated homosexuality” and “promoting homosexuality,”
and today police in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, stopped a scheduled march
by hundreds of women protesting the nation’s miniskirt ban
Read the report below
Women in Uganda have gathered in the capital Kampala to protest against a law banning the wearing of miniskirts.
Police prevented the women from marching through the streets of the capital, but officers in riot gear watched as around 200 women instead gathered outside the national theatre, BBC News reported.
One woman’s placard read: “my body my business”, while another woman held a card saying: “thou shalt not touch my miniskirt”.
The protests come amid reports that police have been forcing women to remove their skirts in public.
Over the past week, several women wearing skirts have publicly been harassed and assaulted, after the President signed an anti-pornography bill in December banning “indecent” clothing
One of the event organisers claimed she was harassed when she went to the police headquarters to seek permission to hold the march.
“I was wearing a dress I considered official. Policeman after policeman - low-ranking, high-ranking - they each told me, 'You cannot enter this place in that miniskirt,'” Patience Akumu told the BBC.
Ms Akumu told reporters that police officers “manhandled” her and confiscated her phone when she took photos of them.
The police have since issued a statement condemning “mob… undressing” by officers.
Uganda's Ethics and Integrity Minister, Simon Lokodo, put forward the measure last year, and said that women who wore “ anything above the knee” should be arrested.
See more photos from the event below
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