WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Virtue campaign grips Gaza Strip
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-29 09:33 Gaza maintains small islands of secularism. Foreigners are rarely harassed, and Gaza women in stylish clothes and hairdos, many of them Muslims, frequent a half-dozen upmarket cafes and restaurants. But Abdel Raouf Halabi, Gaza's chief supreme court judge, this month ordered female lawyers to wear head scarves and dark robes or be barred from courtrooms when their work resumes on September 1. "We will not allow people to ruin morals," he explained.
Juma said she would not wear a head scarf and hoped a public outcry would pressure Hamas officials to withdraw the order. In government schools, head scarves for female students are supposed to be optional. But one high school has made robes and head scarves a condition for enrollment. Teachers are now being asked to pressure the girls to put them on, said Education Ministry spokesman Khaled Radi. Police are enforcing the restrictions on mannequins and salesmen say they ripped off the tags on packages of panties and bras, which showed women in underwear. Other shopkeepers said they were told to remove the mannequins' heads so they don't violate the Islamic ban on copying the human form. Enforcement is spotty and seems restricted to working-class markets. Most traders said they moved the mannequins back after police left. Lingerie seller Mohammed Helu, 23, hid his under-clad mannequins but was allowed to display an outfit of a plunging top and miniskirt with the mannequin's head covered by a plastic bag. On a Gaza beach, Mohammed Amta, 18, said a plainclothes security man told him to put on a shirt, saying his appearance was un-Islamic, and to remove his two silver rings and woven bracelet because they were a sign of Western culture. A lifeguard said he was told to wear an undershirt and knee-length shorts. "They said that's how Muslims should dress," he said. He declined to be named, fearing he would lose his Hamas-provided job. Last month, three young men walking on the beach with a female friend said they were beaten by Hamas police, detained and ordered to sign statements promising not to engage in "immoral activities". The Hamas government condemned the beatings. But it remained silent when a Hamas leader, Younis Astal, accused UN-run summer camps for tens of thousands of children of spreading drug use and encouraging "obscene behavior" for teaching swimming and folklore dance. Abu Jarbou, the deputy minister, insisted that Hamas would move gradually and not impose its views by force. Still, Islamic law is coming, he said. "In the future, it's inevitable it will be implemented," he said. AP
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