A university in Nigeria spread the video to show female students being moved to see if they caused anger after wearing bras before taking the exam.
In the video, female employees of Olabisi Onabani University in southwestern Ogun State touched some students’ chests while queuing into the examination hall.
The university has not commented on the video yet, but student leaders defended the bra policy, part of the institution’s dress code, designed to maintain a “disturbance-free environment.”
But, he acknowledged, it would take other ways to implement policies critics denounced as ancient, sexist and likened to sexual assault.
A senior official from the campaign group Human Rights Network told the BBC that students could sue the university for infringement of its rights.
“Unreasonable touching another person’s body is illegal and can lead to legal action. It is wrong to adopt this method to curb indecent dressings.”
A student who doesn’t want to be named told the BBC that the university enforces strict ethics despite not being a religious institution.
She said their clothes were always checking.
In response to the strong protests, Muizz Olatunji, president of the University Student Union, said on X that the university promotes a dress code policy that aims to maintain a respectful and distracted environment and encourages students to moderately align with the value of the institution.
The policy was nothing new, he added, and the union “has been engaged to the institution and explored alternative ways to address indecent dressings, focusing on the interaction of respect and dignity between students and employees”.
He also issued dress codes, which included prohibiting any “clothing that can be “indecently followed by a student with the same desire or the opposite sex”.
The university was founded in 1982 when Olabisi Onabanjo was governor and was founded at Ogun State University. It was renamed as him in 2001.
