Government going to extreme lengths

A Polish lawmaker has called for a miniskirt ban as part of an overall crusade against the "enticement to sex" by women in public.

Artur Zawisza, a Catholic member of the breakaway "Right of the Republic" party (Prawica Rzeczypolpoliteij) , wants to ban miniskirts as well as heavy makeup and see-through blouses in a proposal he says is aimed at prostitutes. His initiative would rob Polish streetwalkers of a means of advertising, he says, according to Newsweek Polska.

Although Zawisza admits the ban might have a chilling effect on women who aren't prostitutes. "It is possible that a pretty girl on the way home from a disco might get arrested," he said, but he trusted Polish police to "tell the difference between respectable women and women with loose morals."


Planning to stay a step ahead of the potential of a government crack down - A little Polish ingenuity by working girls is illustrated at right.



The call for a less "enticing" Polish streetscape comes days ahead of the so-called World Congress of Families, a conference in Warsaw of American and European conservatives. A right-wing American think tank, the Howard Center, has organized the Congress with more than 20 American groups which all blame the weakening of western Europe on its tolerance of abortion, gay marriage, and other perceived social ills. Poland -- which has strict anti-abortion laws, but also a low birth rate -- looks to the organizers like a bastion of family values.

"Europe is almost lost to demographic winter and to the secularists, " reads a WCF paper explaining why this year's conference should be in Warsaw. "If Europe goes much of the world will go with it. Almost alone, Poland has maintained strong faith and strong families ... On family and population questions, Europe is the battleground in the early years of the 21st Century, and Poland is the pivot point."



The last miniskirt ban in Europe dates to 1967, when a Greek military junta under General Pattakos banned both miniskirts and beards.