Hong Kong prisons start trimming female inmates’ tresses just past shoulders after court ruling on sex discrimination
- Critics say prisons have not gone far enough, as different rules still apply for men and women
- Those who don’t want their hair trimmed can seek an exemption, says prisons department
Hong Kong prisons have begun trimming the locks of female inmates to just past shoulder length, after a recent court ruling that the Correctional Services Department was discriminating by imposing different hair standards on the two sexes, the Post has learned.
In the past, male prisoners had to keep their hair “short to medium-short” but females could have hair of any length.
That was sex discrimination, the Court of Final Appeal ruled last November in a case brought by activist and former opposition lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, whose locks were previously shorn when he served a brief 2014 prison stint for his involvement in an earlier protest.
From this month, haircuts are now mandatory for both sexes at Hong Kong’s 28 correctional facilities. There is no change for males, but long-haired women will have regular trims to keep their tresses at “armpit length”.
But critics and prisoners’ rights advocates say the department has not yet removed discrimination, as there are still different standards for each gender. One warned of possible conflicts over haircuts between prisoners and frontline prison officers.