Does attire define a woman?

I just read an article in The Hindu Does attire define a woman ?

The article is very well written and brings out very well how women from North East are wrongly evaluated on the basis of their dress. The article is nicely written though very specific to Delhi or metro centric society. Let’s see how different women from different backgrounds dressed as approved by their communities are looked upon in Delhi and NCR and maybe elsewhere.

The writer says "A fully clothed woman is neither the moral custodian nor epitome of society". Indeed they are not. They are the ones who are really considered downmarket among well off people.”Short skirts and sleeveless dress” are maybe prejudiced . But people more conservatively dressed are prejudiced as well.

All women who dress less than what a certain person considers permitted are always accused of encouraging promiscuity. Actually the Slut movements in western countries were fighting the very same prejudice. My opinion is simple .Whatever be the dress however provocative . It gives no one a licence to harass tease or molest a woman .

A wardrobe like a saree or salwar kameez is considered safe in North Indian states . This is again very wrong. Most of the people who suffer daily harassment on streets are just girls next doors and not bikini models.

The author writes that "Short skirts are clothes that women wear to workplaces or even to congregations like Sunday churches" in North East . This is as true of Goa where I have spent last few years of my life. Like North -East ,Goan tradition is quite plural and is quite tolerant about dressing . So while you have Indian dresses mostly prevalent among large section of population, due to Portuguese Influence and more recently due to education and tourist Influence people are very tolerant about short dresses. The problem with other North Indian as well as South Indian people visiting these places is quite simple. They have forced their women to dress conservatively and whenever they see someone with a different style of dressing, less or more they think there is something wrong with their dressing.

Let’s see how all kinds of Attire face prejudice specially in Delhi or NCR which is the subject of The Hindu article .

1. Women Clad In Burqua

Though she is as conservatively dressed as possible no data indicates if they are less victims of harassment than any other women in town. They are automatically considered a no no for any corporate MNC jobs even Local Jobs. Qualifications hardly matter in deciding religious prejudices. The attire does define Women to their prospective employer .She is at the bottom end of a recruiters selection preferences .Indeed the whole concept of Burqa as it was conceived was meant to deprive women from social interaction and to make sure they had no identity . This purpose is well served even in this Information Technology age. At least in our metros

2, The  Girl clad in Saree with Ghunghat

Theses "bechari" women are also considered a no no in all higher society and considered downmarket and mostly poor . They are considered vulnerable and they are the ones who bear the brunt of most sexual molestations and harassment. People think they should remain at home or should be offered lowly Jobs like maids. Such women are mostly considered to have migrated from Rural India .A metro brought up daughter of even these women have changed their dressing style to a more acceptable Salwar Kameez . In places like Gurgaon these women exist with all their Rural force where the more upwardly mobile women are migrants .Its a strange world where the old and new exist together exerting all its force on the other to conform.

3 .Girls in Western Dress

A girl in Jeans or shorts or skirt is generally very acceptable in cosmopolitan society .They have a real problem where such cosmopolitanism has been forced upon Rural areas like Gaziabad and Gurgaon.The men simply consider these " less dressed women" as available and attack as and when possible .Its less to do with testosterone than the fact that these women are challenging their existing Rural prejudices . Money has not changed t