Hamas imposes Islamic dress code for women civil servants
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
GAZA CITY Ñ Hamas has ordered that women in government institutions conform to an Islamic dress code.
Palestinian sources said the Hamas regime has decided that women in civil service would require Islamic dress. The sources said the decision would include Islamic robes and veils for women attorneys in courts in the Gaza Strip.
On July 9, Hamas Chief Justice Abdul Raouf Al Halabi ordered women attorneys to wear robes and veils. Al Halabi said his directive would take effect on Sept. 1.
"We will not allow people to corrupt morals," Al Halabi said.
The sources said the directive marked the latest development in a Hamas campaign to impose Islamic observance on the Gaza Strip. They said the campaign was launched by the Islamic Affairs Ministry amid the emergence of Al Qaida-aligned and militias, which have accused Hamas of tolerating Christian worship, Internet and mixed dancing, regarded as influences from the West.
"We have to encourage people to be virtuous and keep them away from sin," Hamas Deputy Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullah Abu Jarbou said.
Under the latest decision, male attorneys would be required to wear a uniform in court that consists of a robe, dark suit, white shirt and black tie. Female counterparts would also wear a robe and a scarf.
"This decision constitutes a violation of the law and an unjustified intervention into lawyers' affairs," the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said. "It also undermines personal freedoms and women's rights through forcing female lawyers to wear traditional robes."
Hamas has acknowledged that the regime was conducting what officials termed a "culture of resistance." Officials said the policy was meant to sustain any Palestinian conflict with Israel regardless of economic or political hardship.
"We are not terrorists but resistance fighters, and we want to explain our reality to the outside world," Hamas Culture Minister Osama Alisawi said along the sidelines of a conference on the culture of resistance.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said the Hamas directive violates the Palestinian Basic Law of 2003. The human rights group said the order "constitutes a form of discrimination against women and undermines personal freedoms ensured by the constitution."
"Imposing a special uniform on female and male lawyers in the Gaza Strip reinforces the state of fragmentation, which means that two kinds of clothing for lawyers, one in the West Bank and the other one in Gaza, even though the unification of the Bar Association in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has been an important national achievement in the past years," the center said.