The way women dress and sexual crimes against women. Can women dress however they want? My take.
The zebra crossing has the pedestrian green light on, indicating it's safe to cross yet EVERY one of us will still look right and left, sometimes repeatedly, before crossing because we know as much as everyone else does that despite all the education and awareness, drivers can still be careless/distracted/intoxicated and accidents can still happen. What we all believe is that WE CAN'T CHANGE THE DRIVER'S JUDGEMENT AND ACTIONS but we can help him avoid wrongdoing by exercising caution on our end.
People who commit sexual crimes on women are exactly this - mentally unstable, have poor control of themselves and sometimes drugged/intoxicated. And we can't change that just like how we can't change an irresponsible driver. Us being on the other side, being well brought up, responsible and having a good sense of what's decent and what's not, should help these potential perpetrators by zoning ourselves into the 'modest and not interested' category, instead of 'I don't care if I am making you gawp, or even gasp for that matter, cause I like having your attention'. In the latter, aren't we being irresponsible ourselves, and provoking an already uncontrollable mind? Aren't we making it easier for perpetrators to blame it on us?
So my take is, promote modesty at all times. Dress responsibly. Help people to help themselves. We can't change the world, but we can reduce everyone's pain and hurt. The perpetrators will eventually get old and die without getting any action.
Common concern in society: What about women who are fully covered but still become victims to such crimes?
Answer: Non-smoking people and those with no exposure to cigarette smoke also die of lung cancer but the whole world agrees to 'Smoking Causes Cancer'. Same here in this case. You know why? It's the way the world has evolved. Teachers, even now, even in countries where women rights are the highest, where societies are way more open, are still required to dress at least knee length when they are on duty, in schools or even in colleges. In the same countries, girls entertaining in pubs on the other hand, are expected to wear more liberally and show much more when on duty. We grow up in such a world. We LEARN to associate the way a women dresses with her readiness to be an object of entertainment or a subject of a certain type of service.It's the conditioning that everyone goes through. Given this conditioning, how women dress definitely signals to men that she can be approached for CERTAIN services/actions. Since the world has evolved this way, and the world always has a reason for the way it has evolved, we can't do much on this conditioning, but as women, we can control our signalling by dressing appropriately. Wrong signalling can end up in unwanted incidences with things turning violent and going out of control when advances from potential pepertrators are not well handled by women who had, knowingly or unknowingly, 'lured' them with their dressing. Anyway, a swimsuit is modest too if it's at the pool, and covering your self from head-to-toe is very normal in religious places. Modesty is a subjective matter, but the idea is NOT TO encourage potential pepertrators.