By Andy Potts
Moscow News
January 18, 2011
http://themoscownews.com/society/20110118/188342224.html?referfrommn
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A church call for a national dress code has provoked a furious response after a senior cleric claimed wearing a miniskirt could provoke a rapist.
In an argument which Western feminists thought had been resolved decades ago, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Orthodox Church's Synodal Department for Church and Society, suggested that a drunk woman in a miniskirt had no right to be surprised if she was raped.
"If a woman wears a miniskirt, it can be provocative," Chaplin said at a recent round table, Interfax reported.
"If she is drunk at the same time, it's especially provocative. And if that encourages people to try to make contact, she can't be surprised if that contact ends up with rape."
Men, meanwhile, would be regarded as pitiful objects if they slob around in ill-fitting sweatpants and string vests.
Dressing down
During last summer's heatwave Moscow adopted a new-look minimalist dress code – and that seems to have got the church hot under the collar.
Chaplin commented on an open letter to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, praising the way many companies and institutions impose dress codes on staff.
"It would be nice if we could come up with a nationwide dress code, albeit one which could not apply in strip bars and brothels," he wrote.
Double standards
But Chaplin stands accused of twisting the facts by Elena Timofeeva, whose FairFund Russia organisation works closely with victims of sexual violence and people trafficking.
"Violence against women comes from the men who attack them," she told The Moscow News. "If Chaplin was right there would be no rapes in the winter because nobody is wearing miniskirts when it is so cold.
"Clothes now are not so sexy, but there is still violence in winter."
And nobody blames well-dressed men when they fall foul of muggers, Timofeeva added.
"If a man wears a nice suit and has an expensive watch on, nobody says it is his fault if he is robbed," she said. "Everyone blames the robber.
"But if a woman wears a miniskirt or make-up she gets the blame.
"I'm shocked that people are still saying this – we live in Europe in the 21st Century."
Misinterpreted
For his part, Chaplin was unhappy that an online letter directed to Patriarch Kirill accused the priest of justifying rape and indecent assault.
"There is no justification for such actions," he said. "But the problem remains. Not so much for me, as for those who confuse the streets with a striptease (or who will do so again as soon as winter ends)."
And he added that he was happy his remarks had focused attention on the social impact of people's dress decisions, Interfax added.
"Cheeky appearance and behaviour is a straight road to disaster," he warned. "It leads to empty love, short-term marriage and divorce. To children in broken homes. To loneliness and insanity."
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