The law is something that is supposed to guide and help the masses to live in harmony and order for their own good, so far: It is not the case in Uganda right now.
Since the Anti- Pornography Law was passed the idle hooligans in town have gone on a rampage, beating, harassing and undressing women even those that are actually decent enough to be left alone.
I have been hearing stories of these things happening but I had not witnessed till this morning while on my way to work, I was in too much shock to take a picture of such a situation. A lady
that was walking ahead of me, was slapped on the behind by one of the rowdy men just near Total down town, she flinched and walked on but the man followed her while hurling derogatory insults at her. The lady turned to tell him off then he pulled at her dress while shouting that it was too short, after that it was a blur of events. Next minute the lady is on the ground and half naked, her clothes torn off and her screaming for help while people watched, call me a coward but I sat on the next boda out of there till office.
First of all, that lady was not indecent in any way, her dress
was right on the knees, it was not too tight, nor were her breasts showing, it was her well rounded big rare that brought all that attention. Secondly, this ignorance of the Anti- Pornography Law is going to cost many women their lives and dignity. We cannot give the fools and noisy men around town a reason to harm innocent women just because this law is commonly known as the Anti- Miniskirt law. There are women in Uganda who no matter how long their clothes are, their bodies will come out enticingly because that is how God created our women, voluptuous and curvaceous. They cannot be blamed for such things because they cannot help how good the clothes make them look.
The Law defines Pornography as any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual excitement.
It is wonderful that the Government wants to keep its people safe from pornography and what comes with it but if the rest of Uganda that does not know anything about this law is not well sensitized about it, this country is not going to be safe for women.
One of the law makers reportedly said the law was passed to protect women and children from rape and defilement, that is say most sexual crimes that are usually brought about by men watching too much pornography.
The only problem is the law instead of protecting women, it has been misinterpreted in a way that women are the ones suffering. There is nothing more chaotic than ignorant idle people that have a twisted form of morality and have been given a chance to express themselves, if we want to protect our women against sexual crimes, let’s start with educating our men, not attacking the women and how they dress. I will stand by my opinion that this law only comes down to morality.