While in St. Louis last week, I noticed a couple of teenage girls, clearly visitors from Europe or the US, who were walking around wearing very short denim shorts. Usually, this wouldn’t cause me to bat an eyelash, but this scene made me cringe. In Senegal, women do not show their legs. If seeing these girls revealing quite a bit (even the beginning of a posterior!?) seemed gauche to me, I could only imagine that the Senegalese bystanders were blinded!
I have learned that the conservative dress code adopted by women here is another example of the extension of religious beliefs into daily life and practiced out of respect for their husbands (you’re hubby doesn’t want you to show off the goods!). Women here wear long skirts, opaque leggings or other pants to keep covered up. And this practice begins at an early age; I have seen little girls, from toddlers to teenagers, dressed in full-length garb. I myself have chosen to oblige this cultural practice and generally wear full length pants or maxi dresses. Under the unyielding sun in the hot season, wearing long coverings seems horrible (and it is), but it is just the way things are done here.
Counterintuitive to western thought, you would assume breast exposure is also discouraged, but in fact, boobs are out and about all over the place! The chest of a young woman who is unmarried and without children is considered sexual, but once that first baby arrives, the sexuality evaporates and the breast becomes no more than the vessel which transports free food to your baby.
So, the next time you find yourself in Senegal, please do remember to pack those cute maxi dresses or sexy skinny jeans, but if the lady next to you in your taxi whips out her (or if her toddlers even gets it out himself!) boob, don’t feel awkward, it is just a mammary gland! 🙂
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