PUKAR Gender & Space Project invites you to a discussion of the
wider issues around the institutionalizing of Dress Codes by
Universities across the country

Date: Tuesday, 20 December 2005
Time 6.30 pm
Venue: PUKAR Office
Address: 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Opposite Strand Book
Stall, Sir. P M Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001. Tel: 5574-8152


Do we need a dress code in colleges? Whom is the dress code
directed at? What are the kinds of clothing they object to? What are
the varied grounds on which these objections are voiced? Is the
debate about dress codes only about clothing? Or is it also about
something else?

And if it's about more than dress codes then what are these other
things; these anxieties that play themselves out in the debate on
dress codes? The sexuality of heterosexual couples outside marriage?
The fear that information on safe sex will encourage sex? The threat
posed by the non-normative sexual of gay, lesbian or trans-gender
people? The purity of narrowly religion written on the bodies of
women? The purity of a regional culture reflected in the virtue of
its women? The boundaries of caste, race or nation? Narrowly defined
visions of Indian-ness?

It's not just Indians who are worried about clothing. The French
have acrimonious public debates about them. The Turks have used
clothing to define nation. The Iranians used clothing as
revolutionary symbol only to have it haunt them in the post-
revolutionary society. The Dutch are still grappling with the
presence of veiled women in public space. The US Americans
demonstrate suspicion of terrorist intention on the basis of
clothing.

We submit that that dress codes are merely symptomatic of a time
when not just the way people dress is sought to be controlled but
the way we walk, behave, and exchange thoughts, ideas and affection.
The intention of this roundtable discussion is to raise questions
not just about dress codes but also the varied issues that have come
up recently: the sanctions against couples in many cities, the
length of Sania Mirza's skirts, the brouhaha over actor Khushboo's
comment on pre-marital safe-sex, moral codes relating to women's
sexuality, the sanctions against same sex relationship, the Imrana
case, the varied fatwas on Muslim women, the anxieties about the
cross-community romances during Navratri are only some of them. It
is important that we discuss these concerns not in isolation (which
is how they are often reported) but as inter-linked issues that seek
to censor our voices and define our choices.

We invite you to participate in a discussion of the wider issues
around the institutionalizing of Dress Codes by Universities across
the country


The Discussion will be initiated by an audio documentary

Then They Came For My Jeans…

The audio documentary raises questions about the dress codes being
imposed on college students in various universities.
The documentary is located in the broader context of the PUKAR
Gender & Space project which seeks to explore the ways by which
women experience public spaces, accessing them against all odds,
transforming the nature of urban life in the process.

A 12 minute audio documentary
Produced by: Studio PUKAR
Executive Producers: Sameera Khan & Shilpa Phadke
Sound Recordist & Editor: Anita Kushwaha
Creative Consultant: Shilpa Gupta
Documentation: Shriti K
Cover Design: Shilpa Ranade
Thanks to BMM Dept., SIES College for Recording Assistance
Funded by: Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternative Development



Date: Tuesday, 20 December 2005
Time 6.30 pm
Venue: PUKAR Office
Address: 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Opposite Strand Book
Stall, Sir. P M Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001. Tel: 5574-8152