60yo M’sian Denied From Taking Lift at City Council in Johor as Her Dress Was Not Long Enough

Recently, there appears to be a host of issues when it comes to dress codes and what people are not allowed to wear to official public buildings from hospitals to police stations.

In yet another case of attire policing, a 60-year-old woman in Johor was recently prevented from taking the lift to the second floor of the Pasir Gudang City Council office despite wearing a dress that was beyond her knees.

In an interview with Sin Chew Daily, the woman surnamed Chen said that she had gone to the to the City Council at 11am yesterday (February 15) to renew her business permit.

When she arrived, a female officer at the front counter told her to make her way to the second floor to enquire about advertising costs.

After she had gotten her queue number, Chen said she was about to take the elevator when a security guard stopped her and said that she couldn’t use as her dress was too short. The guards then told her that her dress had to reach the floor in order to be deemed as “long enough”.

Not wanting to cause a scene, Chen returned to the front counter and asked the female officer about the length of her dress.

“I took a few steps back to let her inspect whether it was really too short as claimed by the security guard. However, she was equally as helpless and suggested that I take the stairs instead, which I did despite having a foot injury.”

“As a businesswoman, I often need to visit government departments so I’ll usually wear one-piece dresses that reach past my knees“, said Chen.

“I never had any issues with it in the past, so I’m not sure why the rules are different this time. Also, I’m already 60 years old so there’s no way I’m going to wear mini skirts,” she jokingly added.

Chen concluded that it was high time that a dress code be standardised at all government departments to avoid such situations.

Should dress codes be standardised to avoid such situations from recurring in the future?

Also read: M’sian Woman Denied Entry Into Kampar Hospital’s ER Because She Was Wearing Shorts