Woman From Rwanda Risks Two Years In Prison For “Shameful” Dress
the black handcuffs on wooden background
According to authorities, a 24-year-old woman who was detained in Rwanda for donning “shameful” apparel might spend up to two years in prison.
Liliane Mugabekazi was detained on August 7 after showing up in a revealing dress to a concert by well-known French artist Tayc eight days earlier.
prosecutors accuse her that she committed a “serious crime” by “She attended the concert while wearing clothes that reveal her private parts… clothes that we call shameful.
“It is on these serious grounds that we ask the court to remand Mugabekazi for 30 days.”
According to the prosecution’s spokeswoman, Faustin Nkusi, “She is suspected of having committed public indecency,” and the court would decide on Tuesday whether to grant her bail.
Some Rwandans expressed outrage upon hearing of the arrest, but government officials, including former justice minister Johnston Busingye, supported the action.
“The current issue of our young men and women who drink and drug themselves unconscious, appear in public literally naked is objectionable,” tweeted Busingye, who is now Rwanda’s ambassador to Britain.
“I support the efforts… to address it.”
Last week, police spokesman John Bosco Kabera condemned what he called “immorality and vulgarity among young people” in a television appearance.
“This issue is getting worse… You see someone who is merely wearing a shirt, without shorts or pants,” he remarked.
Then, wearing attire that resembles nets, these folks enter public spaces.
The first right is to dress correctly, not to wear indecently, he said in response to the program host’s question on whether “such people did not have a right to dress as they wanted.”
Many Rwandans have recently violated the nation’s severe indecency laws.
A video showing a 20-year-old woman laying on the ground in an intoxicated stupor went viral on social media in March, leading to her detention by police for “public drunkenness and indecent assault.”
Campaigners have harshly criticized the East African country’s record on human rights, charging that President Paul Kagame’s administration has quashed any criticism.
AFP
