Real Girls: What's illegal to wear in 20 countries?


	October 17, 2024

Original photo by JackF/ iStock

It's illegal to wear camouflage in 20 countries.

For those in the military, camouflage can be the difference between life and death. For those who simply think it looks cool, it's considerably less essential. With that in mind, it makes a certain amount of sense that 20 countries have banned civilians from wearing it. Those nations are Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Nigeria, Oman, the Philippines, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In some cases this is because civil unrest has given rise to paramilitary organizations, and any civilian wearing camo could be mistaken for a member of such groups or even of the actual armed forces — a potentially dangerous scenario in which to find oneself. The regulations for wearing camo differ greatly between countries, however. Some, such as Trinidad and Tobago, ban all forms of military-style camouflage (even styles clearly worn for fashion), while others, such as South Africa, ban only the specific patterns used by their military.

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In nature, the opposite of camouflage is just as important.

While many animals use camouflage to blend in with their environment — chameleons, arctic foxes, leopards, and countless others — some are bold enough to do just the opposite. It's called aposematism, also known as warning coloration, and it's meant to do exactly what the latter name suggests: ward off potential predators by letting them know it's a bad idea to attack. Often this is because the creature in question is venomous, toxic, or has stingers; sometimes it's simply because they smell or taste bad. Any bird that eats a monarch butterfly, for instance, will soon regret its decision after falling ill from the toxins monarchs derive from the milkweed plants they eat in their caterpillar stage. Aposematism most often comes in the form of displaying bright colors such as red, orange, and yellow, but highly contrasting colors such as black and white — as in the case of skunks, well known for their malodorous defense mechanism — are common as well.

Today's edition of Interesting Facts was written by Michael Nordine and edited by Brooke Robinson.