Gemma Saura, (Saudi Arabia).- She seems like just another influencer, one of those videos that are successful on social networks: a girl with a model's body struts around in a miniskirt, a top that reveals her navel, and sneakers. However, it is not about simple millennial exhibitionism. This is about subversion. Because the girl walks through a city in Saudi Arabia, one of the countries in the world with a stricter dress code for women, where they cannot leave the house without covering themselves with long cloaks that hide the shapes of their bodies.

The video spread like wildfire and ended with her protagonist – it is known that she is Saudi, but her name has not come out – detained for a few hours. According to the authorities, she argued that she did not know that the video had been posted on the Snapchat social network.

The ultra-conservatives took it as an added provocation that the girl was recorded dressed in an “indecent” way in the ancient citadel of Ushayqir, located in the most conservative region of the country. Here was born, at the end of the 18th century, the founder of Wahhabism, the most rigorous current of Islam that governs the kingdom of the Saud.

Women's rights are at the center of the battle, more or less buried, being waged in Saudi Arabia by the influential retrograde sectors, who act as guardians of Wahhabi essences, and the progressives eager for reforms.

Appealing to customs and decency, all women, including foreigners, are required to cover themselves with the abaya, a kind of long and loose tunic. Most Saudi women cover their hair, and the niqab, the full-face veil that only reveals the eyes, is very common. On billboards and shop windows, photographs of women often have pixelated faces.

Strict rules with women, except with foreign leaders

Religious police patrol public places to ensure chastity. Restaurants and cafes are often segregated by sex, with a special entrance for them. Control over the woman's body is the one that is exercised most vigorously, but men cannot wear shorts, extravagant hairstyles or long hair either.

Only foreign leaders have been allowed to get around the rules. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US first lady Melania Trump and the president's daughter Ivanka Trump did not cover their hair or wear abayas during their recent official visits to the kingdom, although they chose a demure wardrobe. A double standard that many Saudis have criticized.

The truth, however, is that clothing is not at the top of the list of priorities for Saudi feminists. Their struggles have focused on obtaining more fundamental reforms, such as the right to drive (it is the only country in the world where a woman cannot get behind the wheel), the right to vote (they were able to vote for the first time in December 2015) and, above all, everything, in ending the guardianship system. The woman is an eternal minor who needs the permission of her legal guardian – her husband, father, brother or even a son – to marry, travel abroad or work.

Women's access to employment and higher education in Saudi Arabia lags far behind levels in Iran, another country governed by Islamic law. In the republic of the ayatollahs, all women - Iranian and foreign - are forced to wear the hijab, but they can drive, there are more girls than boys at university, their participation in the labor market is very wide and they even hold high positions in government.

Turkey

The middle point, neither hijabs nor necklines

Written by Jordi Joan Baños

Not anything goes in Turkey, but hardly any Muslim society is so Westernized in dress. Moreover, the clothing restrictions, for 75 years, were suffered by those who would have wanted to dress in an Ottoman style, with fez and veil. One of the reasons for Erdogan's rise was his crusade to ensure that female students accustomed to covering their hair with a headscarf – generally of humble or rural origin – could access university without having to give it up. Until seven years ago, the doors were closed to them.

As far as men are concerned, practically all of them in Turkey – except for clerics – now dress in the European fashion, although shorts are somewhat less common. As for women, although European fashion is widespread – as much or more than the typically Turkish sort of baggy one-piece trench coat – that doesn't mean that tight clothing or low-cut necklines are frowned upon. Turkish society is conservative, which leads global chains like Zara to restrict their collection, where there are hardly any shorts, tops or anything with a neckline or that reveals a lot of back.

The label depends not only on the part of the country – the further east, the more conservative – but also on the neighborhood. In the more affluent areas of Istanbul, Ankara or Izmir, a girl in a headscarf is more likely to draw disapproving glances than a Westerner. Women have to enter mosques covered, but they can sunbathe in a bikini on the beach, which is more than most Muslim countries can say. Or India, where for most of the natives what is de rigueur is to put your feet in the sea dressed from head to toe.

Italy

The Supreme Court blessed the topless

Written by Eusebio Val

Topless was definitively allowed on Italian beaches thanks to a historic ruling by the Supreme Court in March 2000. The judges found that the display of the female breast, unlike full nudity, "has been a generally accepted behavior for decades and that It has entered into social custom. The venerable magistrates approached the matter with thoroughness and a certain humor. They admitted that “the line of demarcation between obscene and indecent acts is not always easy” and that the display on beaches – except those reserved for nudists – of all genital organs, even “in a state of rest”, can be unpleasant. for the neighbor.

Topless use is not as widespread as in Spain. Before the decision of the Supreme Court, it was already the subject of complaints and controversies, although it had been practiced for decades. In 1982 there was a shocking ordinance on the island of Pantelleria. Its mayor banned toplessness with the macho argument that “most of the time unpleasant fleshy, flaccid and oblong excrescences are exposed to the sun”.

Italy, a contradictory country, has witnessed diverse experiences. The topless on the beaches required a sentence from the Supreme Court, but at the same time its television, especially that of Berlusconi, was a pioneer in the use and abuse of the woman's body as a claim. Ilona Staller, a porn actress, became a deputy unabashedly displaying her charms to voters.

Beyond the clothing on the beaches, there have always been ordinances – like the one in Viareggio, in 2015 – that imposed heavy fines, for urban decorum, on those who walked bare-chested in the street. It is not easy to know, however, how severe they have been in applying the rules. "Here we are very liberal and everyone goes as they want," a Rimini police spokeswoman, one of the most touristic cities in the country and a mecca for Russian visitors, acknowledged to La Vanguardia with a laugh.

Africa

Mandela's shorts, veils and miniskirts

Written by Xavier Aldekoa

When Nelson Mandela was transferred to Robben Island prison in the winter of 1964, the first humiliation came with clothing: the jailers handed out shorts to blacks, but not to white and Indian inmates. Ahmed Kathrada, a friend of Madiba, experienced that mockery firsthand. “Boys wear shorts. That was the apartheid mentality. If you were black, you could never become an adult, you were a child, and you were always going to be treated like a child." Although the sun shines, even today it is rare to see adults in shorts in African countries.

Despite the enormous differences between cultures on the continent, clothing is of paramount importance and defines personal relationships and status. The queen is the wax cloth, fabric with bright colors and drawings that women wear in the form of suits or scarves. In West Africa and Congo she is the pagne. In Mozambique, the capulana. In Malawi, the chitenge. In South Africa, the kikoi; and in East Africa, the kanga.

For the tourist, the colorful fabrics are part of the landscape, not an invitation to change clothes. Tolerance is normal. In the coastal tourist areas, from Gambia to Zanzibar and from Kenya to Mozambique, bikinis or swimsuits are accepted (topless and nudism are not), although it is not uncommon to see bathers in swimsuits alongside locals bathing in T-shirts. Yes, decorum is required out of the water. In Stone Town, a Muslim neighborhood in Zanzibar, women must cover their shoulders and wear long skirts.

Faith and machismo are covering the woman's body. Although in Swaziland or Namibia bare breasts are something natural – in the north of Namibia you see Himbas shopping in supermarkets dressed in a traditional way – the advance of the hard wing of Islam in the north of Mali, Nigeria, Sudan or Somalia covers hair and women's body. In Uganda or Zimbabwe, it is conservative Christianity that avoids seeing too much skin: miniskirts have been banned for female officials and those who wear them on the street are harassed.

Asia

The guideline is shoulders and knees covered

Written by Isidre Ambrós

Heat and humidity are no excuses in the countries of Southeast Asia. The guidelines when it comes to dressing are clear, they leave little room to skip them and they are not far from the Catholic Philippines to the Buddhist Thailand, passing through the Muslim Indonesia. Asians expose very little skin to the sun and they don't like that foreigners don't do the same. The usual thing is that they wear shirts or t-shirts, always with the shoulders covered, and pants or long skirts down to the feet. In some parts of Indonesia, where Sharia rules, it is even forbidden to wear tight pants.

In men there is more permissiveness. Many wear shorts or knee-length shorts, although for tourists things can get complicated when visiting temples, where they demand not to show their legs (in Burma).

The situation in tourist areas and beaches is not very different. The authorities do not allow many joys. At the entrances to temples and closed areas there are notices about dress codes, which are summarized in covered shoulders and knees.

On the beaches there is a little more flexibility, but not much. Local women bathe dressed and find it difficult to assimilate that Western women do so in a bikini. In Thailand, it is possible to enjoy the sun in a two-piece, but only on foreign beaches. If a tourist wants to escape from the masses and bathe with the locals, she may find that she is the target of disapproving glances and that she gets a scolding from some older lady, who will take away her desire to continue sunbathing. And the same will happen in Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia or Malaysia. The only place you'll find some sympathy is in the Philippines, where local women are more tolerant of sharing sun and sea with bikini-clad tourists.

USA

Walking the dog in pajamas is the most normal

Written by Jordi Barbeta

Running bare-chested around the White House is common, but only for men. Women, not yet. Walking the dog in pajamas at night is a widespread practice from coast to coast. Sportswear is now everyday clothing for any activity, except for civil servants and executives, who are not even allowed short sleeves. Among the tourists who visit the museums in summer, the majority are those who wear shorts and flip-flops without any problems. In the opera there is usually a contrast in the stalls between those who are dressed exaggeratedly in gala and those who go just like that to listen to the Nessun dorma.

In 1986, nine women were arrested while picnicking topless in a New York park. Thus began the Topfreedom movement of women demanding to be able to show their nipples just like men. The courts proved them right, but the United States is something else.

“Public indecency” or “disorderly conduct” are infractions that are applied with different degrees of rigor depending on the municipality, county or state, or the desire of the police officer on duty to intervene. The most puritanical states are Utah, Indiana and Tennessee, where clothing is more regulated, not even see-throughs are allowed. California and Florida are more liberal, but topless is banned in Los Angeles, which has sparked protests to the point of becoming a traditional annual Go Topless Pride Parade on Venice Beach. The GoTopless organization has cataloged 33 of the 50 states where you can go topless depending on which places.

Still, the laws are unrelenting in the US against what is considered "lewd behavior." A couple making love on a Florida beach faced 15 years in jail. In the end, the sentence was two and a half years. Street prostitution is highly persecuted, and the client can be sentenced to three months in jail if they are caught making an offer to a provocatively dressed woman who is actually a police officer. It has happened in Washington even to politicians from deep America.

Saudi Arabia arrests the young woman who was walking in a miniskirt in a viral video