BY NUSRAT LASISI
In 2025, Nigeria witnessed a string of controversies that reignited old battles over women’s bodies, and control. From Nollywood actress Ngozi Ezeonu publicly shaming young women at an audition for not wearing bras, to town criers in Anambra allegedly threatening arrests of women who walked the streets without underwear, to Delta State Polytechnic’s infamous “no-bra, no-exam” policy, the message was the same: women’s worth is tied to how they are dressed. By June, the crisis deepened when viral footage showed female staff at Olabisi Onabanjo University pressing their hands against students’ chests in the name of enforcing the bra rule, a practice many likened to sexual assault. These incidents expose not only the persistence of sexist policing of women’s bodies but also how dress codes, rooted in colonial morality and patriarchal anxiety, continue to suffocate Nigerian women’s freedom. This is not just about the brassieres. This is transcends the undergarments into the agenda behind it. The bra is therefore a window into Nigerian womanhood, the struggles and desires. It examines the colonial relic and the aftermath. Here, the bra is merely a symbol.
Across the globe, across centuries , women have been and are still being forced to negotiate their morality, respectability and even humanity. Women still tussle with notions of decency across societies while being denied autonomy. The quest to enforce these definitions with no consideration for individual desires have long led to the exhaustion and rebellion of women against notions and definitions, from the Western first-wave feminism, to the “burn the bra” slogan of the second-wave feminism the Icelandic women revolution, the Egba woman riot women have been rebelling and revolving in quest for self autonomy and the Gen-z women growing disdain for beautiy standard is another movement of revolution.
The bra emerged in the late 19th century in Europe and America and was patented by Mary Jacob in 1914. Before then, European women and American women used corsets. The advent of bra coincided with the rise of industrial capitalism and thus it became commercialized by the lingerie industry. Along the line, bras became a thing of fashionable and sadly, defined modesty and control. Bras were said to be a way of containing a female’s body and to keep it respectable. Thus, the explosion of bras were for both profit and policing. None of which existed in pre-colonial Nigeria.
Bras never existed in Nigerian history before colonialism and the woman’s body, particularly the chest weren’t “contained” In Yoruba, women often tied wrapper around their waist with a short blouse(buba) or tie wrappers around their chest. This was usually among married women or adolescent females. Pre-teen and teenagers could have their chest bare. The women chest were not sexualized but seen as a symbol of fertility and source of life. The spiritual attachment to a woman’s chest in pre-colonial Yoruba were so strong that it was believed a mother could alter the fate of a child by simply holding her breasts and curse or pray for that child. The Efik maidens wore only beads around the waist and left their chest bare. The Islamic influence Hausa had loose garments for females but there was no policing of the woman’s breast then. Semi-nudity was common in many Nigerian societies and the woman’s breasts were symbols of womanhood and were celebrated until the advent of Christianity and colonialism
The arrival of the missionaries caused a shift in the already existing view of women.
Missionaries enforced dress codes in churches and mission schools and covering of breasts became tied to decency and good Christian womanhood. And bare breast were attached to paganism. On the part of colonializers, wives of elites and urban women began to adopt European style of clothing to be seen as enlightened and in vogue. Hence, bras became marketed symbols of civilization and sophistication. By the end of colonialism, in 1960, bras became a normalized fashion standard for sophisticated Nigerian women forgetting that bras were originally created for cash and control not comfort and choice.
In 1968, particularly the 1968 Miss America protest, during the second-wave feminism in the United States, Western women began to reject the notion of suffocating beauty standards which birthed the iconic “Burn the Bra” slogan. Women refused to be confirmed by capitalist and patriarchal standards and the bras became relics of repression and constant control of of the female body to meet male desires. In contrast, the Nigerian markets were heavily saturated with bras at the same time and were accepted as a symbol of progress not oppression.
In recent times, ladies have been refusing to wear bras in public spaces in Nigeria. This has not only attracted public gossips and name calling but also attracted assaults from law enforcement agencies such as the police who reportedly harassed a lady for not wearing bra. Moral policing of women and in some cases, violent reality for not conforming is becoming exhausting for Nigerian women who are constantly surveiled and sexualized based on colonial definition of morality. The bras were never created with the concerns of black women in mind not are they comfortable for average black women. It is an imposition on the women and takes away their liberty and freedom. The natural breast is seen as shameful when it is not “contained” . The bras have helped false expectations about the women breast particularly the Nigerian women who often have larger breasts compared to the Western counterparts. Breasts are desirable when they are firm and rounded not saggy and flat. An unwoman with saggy breasts are often tagged promiscuous in some parts of the country because it is believed that the only breasts that should be saggy are those of married women who are no longer virgins. This reinforces harmful standards.
The branding of women as indecent and wayward in Nigeria, today is amplified by digital media. Social media has become a tool in not only the surveillance of women bodies but also a tool in amplifying the judgement for rebellion and reinforcement of patriarchal standards. Women are filmed while being harrased for not putting on bras. Some are treated with scorn and jeered at by audience turning clothing from a thing of choice into markers of morality. The compulsion of women to wear bras can be compared to the neocolonialism still in play. Although , Nigeria like many African nations are free of Western rulership, the legacies left behind still keeps them subjugated by Western influences. Since Neocolonialism is heavily rejected by average citizens, why then should colonial hangovers for women still be held as standard? The social stigma attached to the adorning or otherwise of bras based on the dictates of colonial legacies casts doubt on the independence of the country as a whole. Is the country truly free when half of it’s population are still held captive by colonial standards?
Nigerian women refusal to wear bras in public spaces, is a call to reimagine their womanhood beyond imported notions of decency and to reclaim their autonomy as women not a symbol of indecency or waywardness. It is the Nigerian women basically saying “no more patriarchal and consumerism standard!”
Nusrat Lasisi is a women rights activist, creative writer and student. She can be reached via email @nusratlasisi2000@gmail.com, Facebook, Instagram, X(Twitter) @ nusratdreteller.