The BBC had a brief item back in February about women in Kenya being assaulted by members of the Mungiki youth sect. The women were targeted because they were wearing trousers, and their assailants stripped them naked for this offense.
The Mungiki sect is an ascetic religious extremist group that, like many such groups these days, sees itself defending traditional values against encroaching liberalism driven by exposure to Western ideas. Estimates put the number of people involved with the sect at around 300,000 (out of a population of 30 million).
Along with assaulting women who wear short skirts or pants, the sect also advocates in favor of female circumcision and has reportedly kidnapped women and forcibly mutilated them.
Women in Kenya, however, seem willing to stand up to these thugs. The BBC quoted one of the woman who was assaulted in February as saying, “I felt so bad, I felt so humiliated . . . [but she will keep wearing trousers because] It’s my right.”
Source:
Kenyan women protest at ‘trouser police’. The BBC, February 3, 2003.