Photographer barred for wearing jeans in Thrissur

KOZHIKODE: Dress code is usually meant for school and college students, but strangely a college has imposed it on a visitor too.   

Noted wildlife photographer, blogger and journalist Seema Suresh, who insisted on wearing a dress of her choice,  was  literally banned from entering Ansar Women’s College, Perumpilavu in Thrissur,  where  she was invited to take a class on wildlife photography.

The college is  controlled by Ansari charitable trust, Perumpilavu,  which has close links with Jamaat-e-Islami, Kerala.

“I was invited to take the class and inaugurate the Nature Club on July 14, which I readily agreed. Later, the college vice-principal asked me which attire I would wear on the day. The question seemed   to be clumsy but I replied that I would come in jeans and shirt with overcoat. She then insisted on me  to  wear churidar and shawl instead of jeans. I was shocked to hear it  and said  that it amounts to gross insult,” Seema told  DC.  She cancelled the programme and the college authorities have not found another guest.

The Thrissur-based photographer says that she had interacted with students in various colleges but this kind of moral policing was the first of its kind. “How come a college imposes a dress code on an outsider who visits that institution, that too on its  request,” asks Seema.

College principal Professor P.K.  Yaqoob responded, “We will look into the dress features of visitors as well.  We have not fixed Seema Suresh for the programme, but there were suggestions,” he said. He added that jeans posed health problems.

Meanwhile, writer Maina Umaiban said it was  unfortunate to impose a dress code on a visitor to the  college. “Students and teachers may come under the dress code citing discipline. But this is too regressive,” she pointed out. The students’  protest against the incident fell in deaf ears.