When I first received my acceptance letter to NYU Abu Dhabi, I was overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude. I would be studying at one of the few leading academic institutions that boasts cultural diversity as one of its distinctive features and actually lives up to these claims. Despite being based in a country that some may label as conservative, this institution has strived to achieve a delicate balance between its U.S. American liberal ideals and the UAE’s laws and regulations. Ever since Marhaba, I was aware of numerous university initiatives to create a safe space for personal expression and cultural inclusivity, be it through the Intercultural Learning Program and Sustained Dialogue series, or by providing on-campus support through Anchorage and the Health Promotion Office.

I have always been told that the campus was a safe space where I could freely express my thoughts, emotions and identity. This makes the idea of a dress code on campus completely ludicrous to me. While it is important to respect the UAE’s cultural norms when one steps out into the city, enforcing similar cultural expectations about dress on campus is counterintuitive to the safe space that we as a community have strived to create.

If we are encouraging self-expression, it should be done in all forms. As such, everyone on campus should be given the freedom to choose what they wear. Whether one’s clothes reflects religious beliefs, fashion sense or current mood — one must still have the right to choose. Primarily, because NYU espouses the liberal values of self expression and the freedom of choice.

It has been previously argued that by choosing to attend this university, students have agreed to adapt themselves to the social and cultural expectations of Abu Dhabi, but the education opportunities and environment we were promised was that of New York University - irrespective of geographical location. By carefully picking our attire when going off-campus, we are demonstrating sufficient respect for the place that hosts us, but our ability to wear what we want when on campus is part and parcel of what being an NYU student means.

Until now there has been no catastrophic dispute over “shorts that were too short.” It is only superfluous to think or attempt to introduce restrictions where none are needed. If someone’s clothing is making you uncomfortable or offending you, you should — in the same spirit of self-expression — have the right to point this out and speak to them about it. Yet this right does not translate into an excuse to publicly shame individuals. Rather, in the spirit of NYUAD, start a respectful dialogue on why this offends you and see where that goes.

What makes NYUAD unique is that cultural harmony is a two-way street; while international students are integrated into the UAE community through Kashtah and Community Outreach programs, local students blend in with the different cultures and lifestyles of international students on campus. If we attempt to enforce a dress code on campus and cite “cultural respect” as the main reason behind it, it would operate on the underlying assumption that the local population took offence to certain items of clothing — that they were to an extent, unaccepting or judgemental or critical of customs that differed from their own. Encouraging a restriction of clothing based on these assumptions only strengthens stereotypical ideas of the Middle East — something we have been working to challenge.

Nonetheless, whether you are a local to the UAE or not, if you have been offended in the past and are offended right now, know that you don’t need to use anonymous online forums to unleash your frustration. Instead, speak out and voice your concerns to the person whose clothing is making you uncomfortable, and hopefully the conversation that follows will lead to a more constructive outcome than just buried resentment.

I’d like to leave you with a quote from Jude Al Qubaisi, a second-year Emirati: “The rules in the UAE have been getting more lenient with time; a city built on international people cannot maintain such strictness and disregard for its climate amongst other things like ignorance of tourists. A society of spiteful insecure people is what I grew up with and what I do not see at NYUAD, and hope to never see.”