Leggings Are Not Pants': Qatari Campaign Urges Tourists to Dress Modestly

A Qatari public awareness campaign called "reflect your respect" is urging tourists to dress modestly and respect the country's Muslim sensibilities while visiting. The campaign is complete with infographics and the declaration that "leggings are not pants."

Twitter user @amadshk tweeted out one of the leaflets being distributed:

Image source: Twitter/@amadshk

And the "reflect your respect" Twitter page has another image:

Image source: Twitter/@reflect_respect

More on the campaign from the Washington Post:

The grass-roots campaign, started by a group of Qatari women, will officially launch next month, according to Gulf News. It includes a brochure to be distributed to arriving visitors that details what sort of attire conforms to accepted societal standards. As expected, dresses, sleeveless attire and other garments believed to reveal too much skin (or chest hair, it seems) are a strict no-no.

More surprisingly, the campaign, which has its own Twitter and Instagram accounts, advises against men wearing shorts. One wonders how this particular mandate jibes with Qatar's plans to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. The "reflect your respect" campaign has already started populating social media with advisories.

Om Abdullah, the leader of the campaign, was quoted telling Al Sharq: “We do not want our children to get used to these behaviours that pose a threat to the identity of the new generations, and our goal is to instill in our children pride in their local and religious values."