By Faith Nyasuguta
A Ugandan constitutional court has quashed a controversial anti-pornography law that included a ban on wearing miniskirts in public.
The decision has been lauded by women’s rights activists.
The judgment by the court indicated that the 2014 legislation, which had been dubbed the “anti-miniskirt law,” was “inconsistent with or in contravention of the constitution of the Republic of Uganda.”
“Sections… of the Anti-Pornography Act are hereby declared null and void,” Justice Frederick Egonda-Ntende said in a ruling.
The ruling also chopped down the powers given to a nine-member committee set to enforce the law.
The 2014 law criminalized any activity that portrayed an aspect of pornography all the way from writing risque songs to wearing short skirts.
The latter sparked an increase in public harassment against women that wore clothes deemed too revealing.
Following the legislation, Ugandan pop star Jemimah Kansiime was in 2014 nabbed for performing in a music video that showed an image of her in underwear.
She is currently facing trial and risks 10 years behind bars but the new ruling could alter the outcome of the case.
Happy about the outcome of the ruling, women’s rights activists protested in the streets and called for the entire legislation to be dropped.
“This has been a bitter struggle and we are grateful (that) those who believe in the rights of women have emerged victors,” Lillian Drabo, one of the nine petitioners who challenged the law, said.
In court, the petitioners indicated that the legislation increased the harassment and mistreatment of women in public.
It further denied them control over their bodies as well as access to public spaces.
In 2016, ex-Ugandan minister for ethics and integrity, Simon Lokodo, who had been championing the law, threatened to shut down a high-end private school for stocking copies of a British children’s book that was considered too sexual.
While in power, Lokodo also directed police officers to arrest men who were having sex with prostitutes and dubbed a popular local television dating show ‘prostitution’.
Local media also revealed that the ex-minister confronted Proscovia Alengot Oromait, then Uganda’s youngest MP, when she walked into parliament in a short skirt.
