Mizo Church’s dress code strict on women

April 10, 2012: The Presbyterian Church, the largest Christian denomination in the North Eastern Indian state of Mizoram, wants women to refrain from wearing trousers and see-through dresses inside places of worship.
The Church’s second-highest decision-making authority, the Synod Executive Committee, on Sunday issued a dress code that insists women should not wear clothes that show too much skin. It also wants women to avoid tight garments inside the church.
The Church code encourages women to use cosmetics, but with moderation, and urges brides to wear beautiful and respectable wedding dresses. The best option for women is to wear the traditional “puan,” a piece of cloth women wrap around waists reaching to the ankles, that the Church terms as a “respectable” dress.
It also wants men to wear clean shoes and respectable suits inside churches. The code comes in the backdrop of a long drawn debate over proper church wear in Mizoram, a Christian majority state in northeastern India. Some church-goers have complained that church aisles have become like red carpets for fashion shows.In 1987, former Chief Minister Laldenga told government employees that although law-enforcement officials would not tolerate "indecent exposure" as described in the Indian Penal Code, no one should impose a dress code for women.