Hamas in Gaza announced new regulations on shops selling women’s lingerie and insist modestly dressed mannequins be displayed, in its latest move to impose modesty in the Gaza Strip. The regulation is one more step in a recent crackdown by the Gaza leadership whereby women are banned from smoking water pipes in public and are required to cover their heads.
The new regulation on Wednesday ordered by the Hamas leadership is aimed at “safeguarding public morality" in the Gaza Strip, a statement said.
The police said shops selling women's clothes must not have dressing rooms or tinted windows, and that the mannequins on display out front must be modestly dressed.
"It is absolutely forbidden to place any photographic device inside the shop and it is forbidden to display revealing clothes in front of the shop," a statement said.
The new regulation came weeks after Hamas banned women from smoking water pipes in public places and is the latest step taken by the Islamist movement to crack down on the mingling of the sexes in the conservative territory.
Last year Hamas ordered female lawyers to wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarf, in court and banned women from riding on motorcycles. It has also banned men from working in women's beauty salons. Beach patrols order men to wear shirts and break up mixed groups of single Gazans. |
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