Friday, June 29, 2012 -
A new dress code imposed on the Kyrgyz parliament seeks to ban MPs and parliamentary staffers from wearing miniskirts and jeans, among other items.
Shirts with plunging necklines on women, T-shirts, sandals, and heavy perfume will also be banned from the government complex in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on Thursday.
The regulations were agreed upon on Tuesday, after opposition MP Tursunbai Bakir-uulu, who represents the Ar-Namys faction, proposed the dress code.
“During the break a moment ago, there was a girl walking in front of me in the hallway wearing a miniskirt,” RFE/RL reported him as saying in a parliamentary session.
“I would have looked the other way, but without looking ahead of me I might have stumbled and fallen,” said the practicing Muslim.
The dress code will also apply to other visitors to the parliamentary complex, a measure which is opposed by some MPs.
“If this impinges on the rights of journalists to wear what they want to wear at work or other members of civil society who want to have access to the parliamentary building, then that’s a different question,” Ata-Meken MP Shirin Aitmatova told the news agency.
“I think most of my colleagues would not see the need to impose a dress code on journalists or other visitors to our building.”