Forbidden colours: Arab women shut down white trousers 'respectability' debate

Forbidden colours: Arab women shut down white trousers 'respectability' debate
Arab women have come together to condemn the latest Twitter saga condemning them for... wearing white trousers.
2 min read
01 Apr, 2019
Oh, the scandal of wearing white trousers [Getty]

Women should not be wearing white trousers if they want to look "respectable", according to yet another rule for women made in the Arab Twitter vortex.

Over the past few days, a tweet went viral after an Arab soial media user said women who wear white trousers do not respect themselves and was met with a huge backlash.

Though many mocked the tweet and the logic surrounding, more often than not, Arab women take such trivial tweets seriously because it underscores the patriarchy in which so many of them live.

Social media, thus has become an outlet for Arab women to fight such sentiments and to create a safe outlet to express themselves, support each other and to shut down such generalisations when they see them.

"In my eyes, any girl who wears white trousers can be seen as anything other than 'not respectable'", the controversial tweet said:


The tweet was cringeworthy for many:
Translation: Yikes. Just disappear

Translation: What is this guy saying?

Some pointed out the hypocricy of the tweeter, seeing his own Twitter header was somewhat provocative:
Translation: God bless that header, look at how modest

Only God can be the judge of this:
Translation: Do not generalise - only God knows the intentions of a person.

But why stop at one reason as to why white trousers are problematic?
Translation: Problems that come with white trousers:
1. They get dirty quickly
2. They don't go with many outfits - one or two at the very most
3. Ashraf (the tweeter) won't find you respectable

And most importantly, nobody cares:
Translation: No one even cares about what you think