The moral brigade

Selective moral outrage has been an issue in our country for a very long time, and has been used particularly against students across the country. Recently, a number of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa universities have imposed strict dress codes for their female students and some have also imposed some code for male students. From shalwar-kameez-only to dupattas or scarves to makeup regulations, there is obviously a fairly wide interpretation of what ‘moral’ clothing should look like.

Issues of morality on campuses go further. At a Lahore university, two students were expelled after a girl proposed to a boy – with flowers and a card. Their hug after the proposal seems to have sent the university into a tizzy over this rather small demonstration of affection.

The couple has since been expelled and various tweets on Twitter and posts over social media take different points of view on what happened as well as on the dress codes in KP. Social activists and rights defenders have questioned whether an adult couple both of whom had consented expressing affection for each other in public should be considered immoral. Certainly, we need to respect their right to express what they feel. What is immoral however, is the terrible acts of violence and the sexual abuse of children, the forced marriage of small girls, domestic violence including the beating of maids, and other such heinous acts. It is these that need to be condemned, rather than trying to clamp down on the freedoms that students and other adults have a right to enjoy in a state which calls itself a democracy and where nothing in the constitution prevents couples from meeting or giving consent to each other provided they are adults and in good mental health. This standing must be accepted as a right of all adults, and there is a need to question the hypocrisy inherent in actions clamping down on so-called ‘immorality’ while other acts are ignored in society, including the killing of women.