ABSTRACT
Is immodest dressing Western? Does Western values encourage the abuse of maids? Are Western tourists polluters and desecraters? To some in the non-Western world, the answer is yes in each case. Immodest dressing has been especially castigated as a Western influence. In Nigeria, there have been failed attempts to legislate against it. In Kenya, thugs have harassed women on the streets of Nairobi for immodest dressing, chiding the women for contravening African values. Yet not too far from Nairobi are villages where women walk around bare-chested. So, like the other claims, that of immodest dressing as a Western value reflects a narrow extraction from reality. Modesty in dressing may be more of the values of Victorian England than traditional Africa.
