Youth detained for dyed hair and dreadlocks in Aweil. (-)

A human rights lawyer has criticized Northern Bahr el Ghazal police after it arrested over 100 youths for dyeing their hair and wearing earrings, adding that the act is a violation of the constitution.

Advocate Reech Malual said South Sudan laws do not impose specific dress codes or personal appearance.

Aweil Police arrested more than 100 young men with dreadlocks, dyed hair and earrings on Thursday, after security directives criminalizing certain lifestyles were announced.

The state police department later said the youth were released on the same day.

However, Malual, the human rights lawyer, said there are no legal grounds for detaining people based on their choices in self-expression and fashion.

According to him, the situation underscored the tension between cultural norms, governmental authority, and personal freedoms.

Advocate Malual further underscored that such arrests violate individual freedoms and human rights.

“Literally, there is no certain code of dressing that has been designed as a national way of dressing and if you look into it, the country decides which is a crime and which is not,” he stated.

“It is not under our law that dressing is a criminal act or the way you dye your hair. It’s not a criminal act according to South Sudan 2008 the penal code.”

On Thursday, the state police commissioner, Major General Philip Madut Tong, told Eye Radio the crackdown first targeted barbers and shop owners selling dyes.

General Philip, said the young men will be released back to the community after their hair is shaved.

The police official could not explain justification for criminalizing certain clothes and hair designs among young people.

“You cannot put the freedom of someone in jeopardy. It is considered a violation of the constitution. Nobody’s freedom should be put in jeopardy because of what they wear.”

“This is something that we can always stand up and say is not right. Police cannot define you by the way you dress that you are a criminal. The only person who pronounces you guilty is the judge.”

It is not the first time that the security agencies have launched crackdown on youth based on certain clothing and hair styles.

Since December 2023, hundreds of youth including celebrities with dreadlocks or dyed hair were arrested in a police crackdown on suspected criminal gangs in the capital Juba.

Some members of the public criticized the police operations that are alleged to have resulted in collective punishment.

But the National Police Spokesperson Major General Daniel Justin maintained that the crackdown was intended to apprehend criminal gangs and not to wrongfully prosecute innocent people.