Short-skirt Brazilian student expelled

IN Brazil, famed for its tiny bikinis and carefree attitude, a university pupil has been expelled after violent protests by students outraged at the short outfit she wore on campus.

The Universidade Bandeirante (Uniban) in Sao Paulo said it had expelled the student, Geysi Villa Nova Arruda, 20, for "flagrant disrespect of ethical principles, academic dignity and morality," in a statement published in Sunday newspapers.

Her dress sparked student protests on October 22 in Brazil, a largely Catholic country.

A video showed Arruda sitting in a classroom in a mid-thigh-length red dress, then six military police officers protecting her as she left the campus wearing a white jacket.

A line of students stood by chanting "whore."

Another video showed a mob stopping and kicking her car and blocking her when she tried to escape on foot.

Comments on Brazilian Websites pointed out the irony of the hatred directed at Arruda by fellow students in a nation obsessed with physical beauty and its famous Carnivale and said the university's actions were unfair.

"Pure hypocrisy ... once February and the Carnivale comes round everyone will be naked and no one will find it abnormal," said one comment posted by a reader on the O Globo news Website.

Uniban said it had also suspended a number of students identified by video footage and witness accounts of taking part in the violence last month.

The university's legal adviser said Arruda had been expelled for "gestures" and "attitudes" she had manifested rather than because of her short outfits.

He would not give details.

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