Provocative dressing: A risk factor to sexual harassment

Some lecturers have debated on whether dress code should be prescribed for students to prevent sexual harassment in Universities.

In an intellectual debate in Accra today October 17, 2019, a lecturer of the University of Ghana, Psychology Department, Dr Collins Badu Agyemang said dressing styles on campuses are too provocative.

“When these students come as fresher’s, their dressing is modest, now second year, in a ‘chrisianto’ manner, third year. Now second year, they begin to learn from the third years and the final years, you are aware of what I am talking about. How people dress reveal provocative seductive dresses, can’t we argue out, how some us dress, can be highly provocative.”

According to him “the way we dress can be a risk factor to some of the challenges some organisations are having to deal with these days.”

In contrast to that, Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh says dressing can never be an excuse to Sexual harassment.

“The reason why I hesitate to say dressing can never constitute sexual harassment is that we have to know the factual circumstance so it doesn’t give the teacher an excuse to carry on to do some other stuff and say that it provoked and so I went ahead to have an affair with her. That is where we draw the line, sexual harassment is never an excuse or defense.”