Only a few months ago, men in Turkey posted
photos of themselves wearing miniskirts to protest violence against
women. Now, another social media movement involving miniskirts has surfaced. According to BuzzFeed, earlier this month an unnamed Algerian student was refused entry to her law school exams because her skirt ended above her knees. The faculty believed it violated the dress code, which required that students wear “decent outfits," so she failed the test. The school's dean told a local paper this was a "trivial matter," but that didn't stop word from spreading.
Fellow student Sophia Jama created a Facebook page entitled
"Ma dignité n'est pas dans la longueur de ma jupe" ("My dignity is not the length of my skirt."), in which she calls on supporters to share leg selfies in solidarity. And, while she uses these "angry leg" selfies to raise awareness about this specific incident, Jama told France24 that the problem is far more complex than a simple dress code violation. "A woman’s body has become a battlefield in Algeria," she said. "If we keep silent, we women will lose a lot...regarding our freedom in public places."
She adds that cases like this one aren't unique to Algeria, rather that it's representative of the infringement upon women's rights worldwide, incidents like the one in
France when a Muslim student was banned from school for wearing a too-long skirt, or the sexual assault in Turkey of a woman wearing a miniskirt. Raising awareness is the first step to making real change, which means Jama's
page may just be the most impactful selfies Facebook's seen in a while. (
Buzzfeed)
