RWANDA FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Our Voice • Our Freedom
PUBLIC STATEMENT
Public statement on women’s clothing, bodily autonomy, and police conduct in Rwanda
This week, a video circulated showing Rwanda National Police officers forcibly apprehending a young woman at a bus park in Rubavu District over clothing described as a mini-skirt. Reports and footage showed police officers handling her roughly and placing her into a police vehicle. Rwanda National Police later said the woman was cleared and released, and that officers appearing in the images were detained while the manner of the arrest is investigated. The episode followed reports that some women were turned away from the Diamond Platnumz concert area at BK Arena in Kigali for outfits security considered too revealing, and a wider public argument over how “public indecency” is defined and enforced.
Rwandan law criminalises an “indecent act” in public. It does not set a national dress code, a minimum skirt length, or a list of banned garments. Enforcement that treats a woman’s clothing as the offence, and that uses force against her body, goes beyond what a vague indecency provision can justify.
Women have a fundamental right to choose what they wear. Clothing is a form of personal expression and of control over one’s own body. No official, officer, or bystander has the authority to seize, humiliate, or assault a woman because they dislike her outfit. Body autonomy is not a privilege granted by police taste or by shifting ideas of “decency.” It is a basic human right. Interfering with a woman’s body because of what she is wearing is an interference with her person, not a neutral act of public order.
Position of Rwanda Freedom of Speech. Rwanda Freedom of Speech is a non-profit initiative that stands for freedom of speech, truth, justice, and peace, and for a future in which people can speak without fear. It was founded by John B. Simbaburanga, a former Rwanda National Police officer, to promote peaceful dialogue and fundamental rights. Consistent with that purpose, we state:
• Freedom of expression includes how a person presents themselves in public, subject only to clear, lawful, and proportionate limits—not to arbitrary humiliation.
• Police exist to protect people, not to police women’s bodies.
• When officers use unnecessary force, the proper response is investigation, accountability, and reform of practice—not silence.
• Those who document or criticise such conduct are exercising the right to speak. That right must be protected, not punished.
We request immediate protection for people who have spoken out against brutality or misconduct by some members of the Rwanda National Police in these incidents. Criticism of unlawful force is not an attack on the institution of the police; it is a demand that the institution live up to the law. Witnesses, journalists, and ordinary citizens who shared videos or raised questions must not face intimidation, arrest, or informal punishment for doing so.
We call on Parliament to stand up and denounce this behaviour. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate should:
1 Publicly reject the use of physical force and degrading treatment against women over clothing.
2 Demand a full, transparent account of the Rubavu arrest and of any similar incidents, including how officers are trained and instructed on “indecency.”
3 Clarify that a vague public-indecency offence is not a licence for officers to invent a dress code on the street.
4 Affirm that women who speak about these events, and those who filmed them, are entitled to protection under the Constitution’s guarantees of expression and dignity.
A country that claims leadership on gender equality cannot treat women’s bodies as public property. Culture and values are not enforced by shoving a woman into a police vehicle. They are lived through respect for the person standing in front of you. Our Voice, Our Freedom.
Rwanda Freedom of Speech
Truth. Justice. Peace.
Rwandan law criminalises an “indecent act” in public. It does not set a national dress code, a minimum skirt length, or a list of banned garments. Enforcement that treats a woman’s clothing as the offence, and that uses force against her body, goes beyond what a vague indecency provision can justify.
Women have a fundamental right to choose what they wear. Clothing is a form of personal expression and of control over one’s own body. No official, officer, or bystander has the authority to seize, humiliate, or assault a woman because they dislike her outfit. Body autonomy is not a privilege granted by police taste or by shifting ideas of “decency.” It is a basic human right. Interfering with a woman’s body because of what she is wearing is an interference with her person, not a neutral act of public order.
Position of Rwanda Freedom of Speech. Rwanda Freedom of Speech is a non-profit initiative that stands for freedom of speech, truth, justice, and peace, and for a future in which people can speak without fear. It was founded by John B. Simbaburanga, a former Rwanda National Police officer, to promote peaceful dialogue and fundamental rights. Consistent with that purpose, we state:
• Freedom of expression includes how a person presents themselves in public, subject only to clear, lawful, and proportionate limits—not to arbitrary humiliation.
• Police exist to protect people, not to police women’s bodies.
• When officers use unnecessary force, the proper response is investigation, accountability, and reform of practice—not silence.
• Those who document or criticise such conduct are exercising the right to speak. That right must be protected, not punished.
We request immediate protection for people who have spoken out against brutality or misconduct by some members of the Rwanda National Police in these incidents. Criticism of unlawful force is not an attack on the institution of the police; it is a demand that the institution live up to the law. Witnesses, journalists, and ordinary citizens who shared videos or raised questions must not face intimidation, arrest, or informal punishment for doing so.
We call on Parliament to stand up and denounce this behaviour. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate should:
1 Publicly reject the use of physical force and degrading treatment against women over clothing.
2 Demand a full, transparent account of the Rubavu arrest and of any similar incidents, including how officers are trained and instructed on “indecency.”
3 Clarify that a vague public-indecency offence is not a licence for officers to invent a dress code on the street.
4 Affirm that women who speak about these events, and those who filmed them, are entitled to protection under the Constitution’s guarantees of expression and dignity.
A country that claims leadership on gender equality cannot treat women’s bodies as public property. Culture and values are not enforced by shoving a woman into a police vehicle. They are lived through respect for the person standing in front of you. Our Voice, Our Freedom.
Rwanda Freedom of Speech
Truth. Justice. Peace.
John B. Simbaburanga, Founder