Vladimir Putin visits a high school classroom in the Urals, on February 13, 2012. AFP PHOTO/RIA-NOVOSTI/ALEXEI NIKOLSKY
Amid international outcry over Russia’s anti-gay laws (and calls for a boycott of the Sochi Winter Olympics and Russian vodka), the Duma may be introducing new repressive legislation: on Monday, local news outlets reported that Russian MPs are mulling a “moral dress code” for schoolteachers, which would ban miniskirts, excessive makeup, and décolleté. Leading the charge was United Russia lawmaker Yelena Senatorova, who stated that, “Pedagogues allow themselves to dress with undisguised sexuality.”
This is superficially of a piece with Putin-era social policy: the ban on homosexual “propaganda,” a crackdown on foreign NGOs and political dissidents (see the bizarre trials of anti-graft blogger Alexei Navalny and deceased whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky), and a ban on adoptions by Americans and same-sex foreign couples.
But while the proposed law falls in line with Putin’s domestic agenda — i.e., to boost support at home by playing the nostalgic and the patriot — it targets a rather different demographic than do previous bills, which targeted minority groups like gays and liberal/leftist political activists. In contrast, the proposed dress code implicates Russia’s largest demographic: women. It may be (relatively) easy to police a Pussy Riot rally, but applying strict dress restrictions will be far more difficult: the country boasts over 900,000 female teachers in secondary school alone.
In spite of the difficulties facing its implementation ahead, the proposed law can count on support from Putin’s base. Despite its sexually discriminatory nature — lawmakers made no mention of restrictions on male schoolteachers- it will provoke no serious grassroots pushback: Putin and his tough laws are especially popular among female voters. Meaning that unlike last week’s much-ridiculed Duma proposal targeting women — M.P. Mikhail Degtyaryov called for parliament to grant women paid leave when menstruating — the schoolteacher code has a good chance of becoming law. Especially with the all but certain backing of Russia’s powerful Orthodox church (and Putin ally): in 2011, Church leaders called for a national dress code. Their justification? According to Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, “It is wrong to think that women should decide themselves what they can wear […] If a woman dresses like a prostitute, her colleagues must have the right to tell her that.” Someone in government, it seems, was listening.
