Liberia 'immoral dress' crackdown

By Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC News, Monrovia

From now on only plain hairstyles will be acceptable at school

Liberia has banned students from wearing artificial hair extensions such as weaves or attachments at school.

Education Minister Joseph Korto told the BBC it was a way of "instilling moral discipline in our young people".

He said students are also banned from wearing skirts or trousers that expose their underwear in any way.

Mr Korto said the government, which came to power last year, wanted Liberia to return to the "good old days" before the civil war of the 1990s.

The education ministry statement said there was to be no "sagging", referring to the way young people often wear shirts or trousers loosely.

"In the 1960s and 1970s or before the war you never saw our young girls or young boys walking in the streets with their clothes on the hips," Mr Koroto said.

Some girls in the capital, Monrovia, have welcomed the measures.

"The time students take to dress or fix their hair should be used to study their lessons," said Watti Robinson, a student at the Catholic-run Saint Theresa Convent.