Cambodia targets short skirts, see-through shirts with new modesty law
- The draft legislation would ban men from going out shirtless and stop women from wearing anything ‘too short’ or ‘too see-through’
- Officials say the law will help preserve traditions, but critics fear it will be used as a tool to control and oppress women
A proposed law that would let Cambodian police fine people deemed to be dressed inappropriately could be used to curtail women’s freedoms and reinforce a culture of impunity around sexual violence, rights campaigners say.
The draft legislation, which will take effect next year if approved by several government ministries and the national assembly, would ban men from going out shirtless and stop women from wearing anything “too short” or “too see-through”.
While billed by the government as a way to preserve national traditions, critics fear the law will be used as a tool to control and oppress women in the socially conservative country.
“In recent months, we’ve seen the policing of women’s bodies and clothing from the highest levels of government, belittling women’s rights to bodily autonomy and self-expression, and placing blame on women for violence committed against them,” said Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights charity.
“I’m apprehensive that this will be disproportionately used against women exercising their fundamental freedoms,” she added.
But Ouk Kimlekh, an interior ministry secretary of state leading the drafting process, said the legislation was needed to preserve traditional culture.
