No more 'yummy mummies' in schools, please

While the dress code debate in Dubai has never settled it is always easily flared up when another effort is made to address the issue at one or another public location.

This time an elementary school triggered supporters and opponents of the request to dress according to local customs to get back in the ring, and wear each other out.

At Raffles World Academy, a Dubai-based school providing education in the levels KG1 to grade 12, a poster informing parents and visitors that they would not like to see ‘too much of them’ is presented on the school premises.

“Parents and visitors, we’d love to see you, but not that much of you. I you are on this land, you are one of us. Please respect the UAE dress code,” reads the text.

To clarify what this means, the poster advises to dress modestly, keep shoulders and midriff covered and keep shorts, skirts, and dresses at knee length.

The message is not much different from previous efforts to keep the expat population reminded of the local sensitivities, but it has by far reached consensus among the female population in Dubai.

“Have you seen what some women wear when they pick up their children from school? Women come after their work out in the shortest possible shorts, and tank tops that resemble bikinis!”, says the Syrian Mariam, mother of three.

“Where my kid was going to school there were a lot of young moms wearing bikini tops with shorts, or bikini bottoms with a crop top, all kinds of stuff!” agrees another mom living in Dubai.

The scarcely dressed moms or visitors to the school have jokingly been dubbed the ‘yummi mummies, but the opponents of the criticism expand well beyond the extreme examples. Many expats say the heat is overwhelming to the extend they cannot bear to cover up certain parts of their bodies.

On an online forum for expats in Dubai, a person comments: “Its boiling hot outside! They should be lucky were not walking around in G-string and bikini tops!!!”

“This is crazy...has someone checked the weather outside...what are we expected to wear in this heat??” asks another forum member.

“In this climate is doesn't matter what you wear. Hot is hot. So better to follow the UAE dress code and wear appropriate clothing. I don't see why that is such an issue. It's not hard to have thighs, midriff, shoulders and cleavage covered,” responds a third female on the forum.

Where can we, and where can we not?

Raffles is not the first school to point out the desired dress code, which lifts the dress code debate to another level. The question now is raised where a dress code notice should and should not be enforced.

In malls, government buildings and the public transportation network dress code notices are hung up as you enter the public area. Although enforcement is practically absent, every now and then an offended visitor of the same public area might make an appeal on the existing rules, with little more than a flare up of the debate as a result.

Last year, Dubai Zoo sparked the debate when asking visitors to cover knees and shoulders, providing scarves if needed.

But when it comes to schools, resistance seems to be more pronounced.  “To enter any government building, I always wear long pants. But I'm paying Dh50,000 plus a year for the privilege to enter my children's school. And I'll do it in my shorts, thanks,” said a Dubai-based mom.

“Fine, dress codes for mosques, but to tell a mum to cover her shoulders for the school run, come on!” added another, while the supporters of the case have their arguments ready too.

“In terms of effect on children, well, it does have an effect, of course they notice, and exposing them to one's exposed skin and especially the more private areas of the body will teach them about modesty or lack of it, depending on whether one holds that as a virtue to follow or a thing not to be bothered with at all,” argues one female on the forum.

“I think we get upset about authorities telling us what to do with our clothes, off or on, because we feel it's no one's business but our own. And that's true, but as stated modest clothing is an aspect of this culture we can't ignore,” she continued.

Local culture?

Respect for the local culture is the key message that local and expat supporters of compliance to a dress code are putting forth. Be it in malls, in schools or in any area that is not your home, you are a guest in another country where you ought to respect the rules, hears the argument.

However, the notion of local culture is not as clear-cut as it seems. With the freedom enjoyed in some places and the lack of enforcement of the rules that are suggested on posters like these, a double standard holds grip of Dubai, think others.

“I don't get it. If I am not supposed to wear revealing clothes, why am I still able to buy them in the stores here?” says Priyanka Kapoor, a long-term Indian resident in Dubai.

“If I am able to lie on the beach in my bikini, why is the local dress code suddenly enforced in other places?” asks another Dubai-based resident.

As it stands today, the scale has not been tipped in either way of the debate and both those in favour and against seem to remain the freedom to do as they please, with the episodic debate as a result.

Homepage image courtesy Shutterstock

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