Does Høibo destroy UiS with this mention?

Perhaps one should not be surprised that even the cover of such a book attracts attention, but I am still surprised by the mention given to it by Karoline Holmboe Høibo, head of the Faculty of Education and Humanities at the University of Stavanger.

Note: The author of this discussion post is interviewed in the health chapter of Hadia Tajik’s book “Freedom”.

Høibo believes that Tajikistan is feminized and sexualized, where she sits, presumably pregnant, in a baggy pantsuit that covers her wrists and ankles. Høibo associates 50 shades of gray, perhaps such an association says more about the associate than about the image of a fully clothed woman on a staircase?

If one wants to summarize Høiboe’s many formal requirements through chronicle, the Tajik should appear in the following book as follows: Unattractive, preferably unkempt and unkempt, in low heels, in more opaque attire. Preferably, garments should be matte red fabric, not velvet. Does Høibo think this is freedom?

Perhaps even more absurd is the requirement of form compared to a Pakistani shalwar kameez, the customary attire for women in Pakistan, the homeland of Tajik parents. Shalwar kameez are usually in rich jewel colors, have lace and gold threads for decoration, and in the Northwest where I have worked previously, most of the time they were made only from velvet fabric.

However, the chronicle has a much darker side than the focus on detail in Tajik attire. Høibo writes:
«Is the choice of color and position meant to rent the tanks against 50 Shades of Gray? In that case, it is an inferior option, seen in light of the internal challenges they have had in the Labor Party in recent years, where older men in positions of power, the sexualized vision of young female party colleagues, have our core issues.
Does Høibo believe that the Labor Party whistleblowers are to blame for the unwanted sexual attention and harassment due to the clothes they have been wearing? If older men in positions of power have a sexualized view of their younger colleagues, is it the women’s fault?

Blaming #metoo on women myself I thought it was a phase that we had passed, also in UiS. Høibo is the head of the faculty of the college where a professor lost his job for harassing female students. Should Høibo be read to the point that if women had dressed differently, their sexualized gaze and comments would not have taken place?
I think both Høibo and the UiS rector who shared the article on Twitter should answer for what they want to say with such a statement. Hopefully this does not reflect either the attitude of the faculty or the university towards safeguarding the freedom of their own students.

And then I hope that in the future we can focus on the content of the book rather than its cover.