By Bek Dhuorjang Chol<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Subject:<\/strong>\u00a0Review of the Mandatory Haircut Policy for Schoolgirls in South Sudan.<\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Hon. Dr. Kuyok Abuol Kuyok<\/p>\n I write with profound concern regarding the 2007 policy mandating compulsory haircuts for schoolgirls in South Sudan.<\/p>\n While its stated aims promoting academic focus, gender equality, and discouraging early marriage, appear well-intentioned, this policy is scientifically unfounded, culturally destructive, and counterproductive to our nation\u2019s educational goals.<\/p>\n The Ministry should initiate an immediate evidence-based review of this regressive mandate.<\/p>\n The policy\u2019s origins reveal a troubling colonial legacy. During the colonial era, East African schools propagated the racist narrative that natural Black hair was “unsightly,” “ungodly,” and “untamable.” Post-independence, these rules evolved into tools to suppress cultural identity and womanhood under the guise of “modesty” and “discipline.” South Sudan adopted this practice wholesale, disregarding our pre-independence history: in the former Sudan, South Sudanese girls excelled academically alongside Arab, Indian, Ethiopian, and European peers\u00a0without forced haircuts. To eternalize this policy today is to endorse a colonial-era stigma against African identity, a form of institutionalized self-erasure.<\/p>\n Empirically,\u00a0no evidence<\/strong> links short hair to improved academic outcomes. Global studies by UNESCO and UNICEF consistently identify poverty, child marriage, teacher shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and transportation barriers as the actual impediments to girls\u2019 education, not hair length. Meanwhile, the policy imposes documented psychological harm: forced haircuts violate bodily freedom, activate trauma and shame, and damage self-esteem. Punitive enforcement by the schools, including caning girls or denying them entry if they don’t chop off their hair, directly contradicts the policy\u2019s purported goal of promoting gender equality. Parents and the community of Northern Upper Nile, Western Bahr el Ghazal, and other communities complained about this policy before, as it is against their culture. These practices alienate students and increase dropout rates, worsening the crises the policy claims to solve.<\/p>\n The policy also generates harmful unintended consequences. In countries that encourage natural hair care, their daughters are performing excellently in their academics. When those girls grow up and become women, their husbands will be forced to bear the economic burden, purchasing imported wigs (often from Brazil, Vietnam, or India) to compensate for lost hair. These wigs require costly maintenance and additional resources. Alarmingly, recent WHO reports link synthetic wigs to carcinogenic chemicals and scalp infections. Culturally, the policy signals state-sanctioned degradation of Black beauty, accelerating internalized self-hatred. As one student lamented:\u00a0“Losing natural curls is irreversible; shaved heads don\u2019t produce scholars.”<\/p>\n Regionally, this practice is in retreat. Some parts of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania have abolished haircut mandates, focusing instead on pedagogy, infrastructure, and inclusion. South Sudan\u2019s insistence on upholding this relic ignores global best practices and isolates us from progressive educational movements. School uniforms already serve as effective identifiers; hair length is irrelevant. To claim otherwise is logically incoherent. A uniformed girl remains recognizable as a student, whether her hair is braided or shorn.<\/p>\n Thus, I urge the Ministry to:<\/p>\n South Sudan\u2019s educational priorities must align with dignity and evidence, not colonial dogma. Hair has no bearing on a girl\u2019s learning capacity, but forced haircuts crush her spirit. I appeal to the Ministry to abolish this policy and champion reforms that empower South Sudanese girls to thrive\u00a0as themselves. To invest in wigs instead of textbooks, and trauma instead of talent, is an indefensible betrayal of our future.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Respectfully,<\/strong><\/p>\n Bek Dhuorjang Chol<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n A concerned citizen of South Sudan & Advocate for Education Reform<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bek Dhuorjang Chol \u00a0 Subject:\u00a0Review of the Mandatory Haircut Policy for Schoolgirls in South Sudan. Dear Hon. Dr. Kuyok Abuol Kuyok I write with profound concern regarding the 2007 policy mandating compulsory haircuts for schoolgirls in South Sudan. While its stated aims promoting academic focus, gender equality, and discouraging[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":37764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oped","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Bek-Dhuorjang-Chol.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37765,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763\/revisions\/37765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n