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Russian Orthodox Church Wants A Dress Code

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January 18, 2011

A senior spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church has proposed the introduction of a dress code for all Russian men and women.

Well, mostly women.

In a short article published on the Interfax news agency's website, Vsevolod Chaplin, the church's chief liaison with secular society, states that no culture has ever considered appearances a private affair and calls for the introduction of nationwide rules of clothing, following the example of school and corporate dress codes.

Enjoying her freedom in Moscow

The article was written in response to an open letter to the Orthodox patriarch from a group of Russian activists appalled by Chaplin's December 2010 remarks putting the blame for sexual assault on rape victims' immodest dress. Defying the group's call for a public apology, Chaplin reiterates his view that a woman who wears a skimpy dress and lots of makeup -- "like a clown" -- can only attract "a drunken idiot" and says he hopes to see the day when indecently dressed individuals will be escorted out of public spaces -- with the exception of brothels or strip bars, he notes.

Chaplin, who wears a traditional black priestly frock, does not specify the lengths, sizes, or colors of acceptable clothing items; nor does he say whether the proposed dress code should be enforced by religious or secular authorities.

Veteran Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva scorned Chaplin's idea. "It's all nonsense. People should dress as they like. Next they'll be telling women not to wear lipstick," she told Interfax.

-- Pavel Butorin

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Comment Sorting

Comments

by: Charlotte from: Mexico

January 19, 2011 05:12

So you think women are to be blamed for being raped because of the way they dress? How about blame the rapist?

Chaplin; you're a proper Charlie...

If you want state-approved dress codes all you have to do is go live - like Iran, Saudi or North Korea, for instance. Just don't expect equal rights as a Christian, though.

by: samonen from: Finland

January 19, 2011 07:37

It is outrageous to put the blame for a violent crime that a rape most definitely is on the victim. The Russian Orthodox church seems to stand for similar primitive, patriarchal, male chauvinist darkness as political Islamism in this matter. It is true that everything in Russian society seems to be fluctuating from one extreme to the other in a most maximalist way not found in the West, be it ownership of the economy or the length (or shortness) of skirts, but Mr. Chaplin's views certainly shouldn't have a place in modern society that Russia, too, tries to be.

In Response

by: Turgai

January 19, 2011 15:12

Well, I find Chaplin's statement courageous and progressive in the face of hedonist totalitarianism.

You know, many Westerners who are 'indignated' by it do not care about the 'freedome' and 'well-being' of Russian women at all. All they want is their steady supply of cheap Slavic flesh because their own women in the West have either become frigid, neurotic, or lesbos.

If you're interested: http://www.khilafah.com/index.php/the-khilafah/social-system/6345-western-governments-attack-islamic-marital-law-but-ignore-plight-of-women-under-liberal-democracy

by: Sergey from: Suburban Chicago, USA

January 19, 2011 11:57

Many of Chaplin remarks are stupid and amoral. Nobody EVER should blame rape victims for rapist behavior and it's a shameful that Vsevolod Chaplin said such things.

Nevertheless, even in his stupid speech there is a grain of wisdom as paradoxical as it may sound. The hard fact of life is that you are judged by your appearance by the outside world. The young teenage girls that try to look as adult women and dress in short skirts and revealing clothing are essentially inviting an unwanted attention from male perverts and idiots. Putting on revealing clothing gives this folks signal: "Just take me".

Of course, there is no excuse for rapist behavior. Nevertheless, I think both men and women (especially young men and women) need to become much more responsible in many things including in the manner they dress. Dress, whether we like it or not, also speaks about some aspects of this or that individual personality to the outside world. In a corporate America, where I worked for many years, every serious corporation have a strict prohibition for women to wear revealing clothing. I think some modesty standards should be in public too. If I had a young daughter, I would never let her wear sexy and revealing clothing. We live in a world we live in and there basic decency developed through thousands of years by Christian and Jewish cultures should be respected.

Also, it's time for ultra-liberal RFE/RL to understand that the ultra-liberal views is not a gold standard of wisdom. The smartest people in the world were in fact very religious and conservative in the best thing of the word.

In Response

by: Turgai

January 21, 2011 15:12

"Putting on revealing clothing gives this folks signal: "Just take me". (...) Of course, there is no excuse for rapist behavior. Nevertheless, I think both men and women (especially young men and women) need to become much more responsible in many things including in the manner they dress."

It does not happen much, but for once we agree.

by: Fr. Alexander from: USA

January 19, 2011 13:04

The rape victim is NEVER to blame! The lack of self-control or evil is on the part of the perpetrator. Being safe however is everyone's responsibility!

All that aside....!

A dress code in the Orthodox Church, isn't a Muslim habib (veil). A Church is a place of prayer and the faithful male and female can be easiely distracted from prayer by an example of beauty.

Matthew 5:28
But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

It's better to come to Church in our "Sunday Best" with the goal and intent to pray, repent and come closer to God. After Church services are over, by all means relax in clothing that makes you comfortable and happy.

God welcomes ALL of us, no matter what we are dressed in - it is what is in our hearts that matter. But for the sake of those struggling for their salvation amidst the worlds many temptations - let us not tempt one another but instead help each other enter into the Kingdom of God.

Fr. Alexander

In Response

by: Fr John from: LA

January 19, 2011 22:39

As an Orthodox priest myself (I gather Fr Alexander is too) I concur on all the above. Coming from a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate, Fr. Chaplin's comments enjoy wide credence, and they speak realistically to a real problem. As the respondent below adds, western notions of pulic morality bear the naive assumption that "we westerners" enjoy something unattainable in 'less civilized'parts of the world: to whit, untrammelled freedom of personal space and expression.
Of course such freedom is conditional if it is all all realizable in public. What people do or don't wear at home is irrelevant (witness Saudi notions of privacy). The Orthodox Church has a large role in Russia defining public morality and Fr Vsevolod need make no excuse for his statement. There is no parallel to this arrangement in the secualr West – though I do not necessarily deem it enviable.The problem with western readers and writers looking at an essentially non-western social situation is that we impose our view and judge their culture as inferior. This is not to say that critique is a priori misguided; it only needs to be informed of the 'apples to oranges' aspect of our respective cultures. Russia is engaged in the construction of a contemporary identity which will necessarily differ form ours. Part of their worldview involves the notion of public decency informed by a millenium of Orthodox Christian communal life. By US or French standards that may seem 'oppressive' or 'sexist' but compared to Islamic mores (or even pre WWII Anglo mores), Slavs enjoy a very liberal attitude toward the human body. Orthodoxy informs these attitudes to some extent, just as ours are essentially calvinistic.
This is a very large topic, and has been the purview of art criticism in the west for decades now. I suggest a deep reading in both traditions, Orthodox patristics and Western avant-garde to form a germaine conversation.

by: Turgai

January 19, 2011 15:06

"Enjoying her freedom in Moscow"

Is is really 'her freedom' or is it the internalised slavery that has come with the so-called role models propagated by the media, glam magazines etc...?

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