Gaza City, March 05: The Gaza’s Islamic government on Thursday announced that it was banning men from working in women’s hair salons. This is their latest step in an effort to impose the Islamic traditions on the inhabitants of the Gaza strip. Most of the 1.5 million people in Gaza are conservative Muslims, but the Hamas government is under pressure to enforce harsh Islamic edicts. They are under pressure from the radical groups, who want that the Hamas government ought to prove their fundamentalist credentials, by imposing such strict measures.
This ban has upset many people. “Next thing you know, they will ban doctors from treating women, and will only let women treat women. Tomorrow, they will ban everything,” said Barakat al-Ghoul, who is a hairdresser. He says that he has been in this business for more than the last 2 decades, and he doesn’t know any other skill to make a living out of.
Strict Islamic traditions say that the women folk should not make their hair visible to the males, if they are not their spouse or relatives linked by blood. After the imposition of this strict rule, many salon owners and employees are going to face a lot of problems. “(Police) will go after anyone who violates this decision, and they will face questioning and legal accountability,” the Hamas-run Gaza police said.
–Agencies–