It’s a common phenomenon that men will always take a peep into women’s handbags. This may involve a lot of issues among which are to check the level of women’s faithfulness and their financial status; but to women, it’s just more than this.

"When a person begins to suspect that his wife is no longer faithful, it will always trigger such mannerism of checking her handbag hoping to find relationship-related items,” says Diana Mbabazi, a business lady operating a retail shop at Kanombe.

As a result, a number of men get so engrossed in desires of finding the complexity of items different women carry in their handbags. This among many other reasons partly explains why men dare to invade these private tools of women.

Mbabazi continues to say that what prompts a man to check in the woman’s handbag is being suspicious that the wife is cheating on him.

She however adds that some men never suspect their wives of cheating or committing marital infidelity because of some women’s disinterest in sex and the fact that men may believe women to be faithful.

But she adds that to some men it’s a habit of cross-checking women’s handbags without any motives. "It’s quite abnormal to see a person checking someone’s handbag and in such a scenario, I normally take such people to be thieves,” she said.

It may not all be about faithfulness. To some men it is beyond and goes to the level of checking the woman’s financial status. This happens especially with spouses who are not open about their incomes.

Mukayiranga Sylvia an employee in one of the stationary shops in Giporoso says, "Some men use our cosmetics that we carry in handbags. When a man admires your beauty, he begins to find out what cosmetics you use that make you look that way.”

She added that some men here (workmates) normally paint themselves with lotions, powder and lipstick whenever we leave our handbags behind with motives of looking like us. Such men cans afford buying their own cosmetic items but they don’t feel comfortable to ask shop attendants for them.

"We always catch them unexpectedly opening our bags but we forgive them. Some men think that working ladies have a lot of air-time on their mobile phones, and they want to use (steal) it in their absence.”

However, some men like Kaboneka Augustine, a Tax driver, say that not every man has that habit of checking women’s handbags.

"I pity whoever does it and I ask them to stop because it’s shameful and does not change anything for those thinking that they are being cheated by their wives,” Kaboneka said.

Kaboneka adds that such men should find other means of spying their wives other than the childish ways of checking women’s handbags.”

A few decades ago, a woman’s role was largely domestic and she would keep her belongings in a purse tucked into the hems of her clothes.

But as women started leaving their homes for leisure and work, handbags became a useful way of carrying their belongings.

The rising popularity of handbags over the past years has also followed the increasing social independence of their owners. For some time, handbags were seen as carriers for items of ladies who reached their adolescent stage.

Most women would feel naked without these handbags. As clothes became more streamlined and simple to their choices of handbags, these could make them stand out of the crowd.

Most women absolutely love handbags something which is a bit of a mystery to men, and they’ll spend hundreds of dollars to purchase their perfect handbags.

But another question may be; what drives women to spend so much on such a small material thing?

Handbags have the ability to fully compliment the look of every single outfit. It is completely possible (and for some women a must), to buy handbags that suit their outfits.

There is no doubt about it that celebrities have set the craze, with a list of stars like Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton and Sarah Jessica Parker, all out and about on a daily routine to look for new flashy bags for their arms.

However, a handbag is not just for fashion purposes. A lot of it is an absolute must for business women. Their handbags should be able to carry important files, make-up and all the latest business technical stuff.

This calls for a practical handbag that suits a particular job that occupies any ordinary woman. Some women just love to show off designer handbags because they get a lot of attention.

No one can resist a beautiful handbag and they would always want to know where the bag was bought and how much it cost them.

Quite often men will go for women’s bags not because they are bad mannered, but because they appear to carry what is extraordinary in character.

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