Latest Hamas Morality Police Crack Downs: Fortune Tellers & Mannequins

JStone

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Jun 29, 2011
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GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Hamas-run government has launched a series of campaigns targeting fortune-tellers, mannequins and cigarette vendors in the Gaza Strip.

Police sources told Ma'an that 142 fortune tellers were forced to sign an agreement at the Ministry of Interior pledging that they would not practice their craft.

As well as predicting the future, fortune tellers sell amulets for protection and are sometimes called on to solve personal or family problems.

Another campaign targets boutiques displaying lingerie on mannequins. Police officials told Ma'an that security forces inspected clothes shops across the Gaza Strip and warned owners not to display naked mannequins, lingerie or "indecent advertisements."

Police are also targeting vendors selling smuggled cigarettes and tobacco, confiscating their goods, police suorces said.
Maan News Agency: Hamas cracks down on fortune-tellers, mannequins



 
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Sorry, Hamas, I'm Wearing Blue Jeans :clap2:
Palestinian feminist Asma Al-Ghoul arrived to our meeting at a Gaza coffee shop sporting blue jeans and a T-shirt—in stark contrast to the Islamic headscarves and tent-like dresses worn by the vast majority of Gazan women.

It's not just clothing that sets this 28-year-old secularist apart. She once publicly chastised a senior Hamas military leader—her uncle—who threatened to kill her, and she continues to publish gutsy articles, read banned books, and defy discriminatory policies. "Gaza needs all the liberal, secular people to stay here," she insisted, when I asked why she had declined opportunities to live abroad.

For three years, Israel has enforced a devastating blockade of the Gaza Strip aimed at isolating Hamas, the Islamic militant group that won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized control of this Palestinian territory in a 2007 civil war. (Fatah, a more moderate Palestinian faction, retained control of the West Bank.) Since then, Hamas has introduced restrictive new laws, including prohibitions against women using male hairdressers or smoking hookah in public. Hamas police have shut down musical concerts and interrogated suspected couples. Principals at government schools have reportedly pressured even Christian girls to wear the Islamic headscarf. Through it all, Asma has remained devoted to secularism, and was recently awarded a prestigious Human Rights Watch grant for her "commitment to free expression and courage in the face of political persecution." But will she be able to help build the inclusive civil society she seeks?

Her brother Mustafa was arrested and jailed by Hamas police last week for participating in street protests against Hamas's recent shutdown of Sharek Youth Forum. The nonprofit, which organized camps and afterschool programs for more than 60,000 Gazan children, is accused of storing pornography on its computers.

These days, when Asma is not overcome with worry about her imprisoned brother's fate, she is reading, writing, and following the news, including coverage of the failing peace negotiations between Israel and Fatah. She regards these talks as a "sad fairytale where everyone knows the ending." She's acquired a smuggled Arabic copy of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie and insists, "We should read it before we judge it." She's also finishing the manuscript to her novel, titled City of Love and Taboo, which explores the Islamization of Gaza. She's hoping to publish it in both Arabic and English.

"Everything is taboo in Gaza now," she says, explaining the book's title. "Yet, at the same time, people still touch and feel and love."

Sorry, Hamas, I'm Wearing Blue Jeans | Mother Jones
 
Sounds like Hamas is getting more and more restrictive as time goes on.

Turkey is moving in the same direction..

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Hamas leader praises Turkey's 'martyrs' in 2010 Gaza blockade

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ISTANBUL // Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza's Hamas prime minister, yesterday praised the Turkish government for its increasingly tough stance against Israel, its one-time ally.

Mr Haniyeh visited the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of a flotilla with aid for the Gaza Strip that was stormed by Israeli commandoes in May 2010.

Nine Turkish activists were killed in the raid, which sent Turkish-Israeli relations into a crisis from which they have not recovered.

Mr Haniyeh was making his first foreign trip since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007 from its Palestinian rival, Fatah.

On Sunday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, talked with Mr Haniyeh for two-and-a-half hours at his Istanbul home.

Veysel Ayhan, an analyst at the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (Orsam), a think tank in Ankara, said Turkey was trying to boost Hamas on the international stage.

Israel and the US have officially labelled Hamas a terrorist group.

Ankara insists the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be solved if Hamas is excluded from the process. Standing in front of the Mavi Marmara, Mr Haniyeh said Palestinians were thankful for the effort to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.

"Your martyrs are our martyrs. Your blood is our blood. Your wounds are our wounds," he said, flanked by officials from the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), an Islamic Turkish organisation that organised the Gaza flotilla of 2010.

In protest against the Mavi Marmara raid, Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Israel and expelled the Israeli envoy from Ankara.

Hamas leader praises Turkey's 'martyrs' in 2010 Gaza blockade - The National
 
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Palestinian Woman Breaks Taboo To Cycle Across Gaza Strip :clap2:
"A man punched my friend in the back and spit in my face" :lol:
In Gaza, an unspoken rule bans women from riding bicycles after they have hit puberty. But last Saturday, one young Palestinian woman decided to defy the taboo, sparking smiles - and a few threats - from fellow Gaza residents.

In a spur of the moment decision, 28-year-old Palestinian journalist Asmaa Alghoul decided to join three of her friends, two Italian human rights workers and an American, on a tour of Gaza by bicycle. On a warm summer's day, the two men and two women set off from the Egyptian border town of Rafah and headed north to Gaza city, along 30km of coastal road. But to Asmaa, the ride was more than a sunny day trip: women on bicycles are frowned upon in the Palestinian territories, and the young woman had not ridden a bike since she was 14 years old.

Most of the Gazans the small group came across were friendly and hospitable, as well as very helpful when it came to repairing flat tires or twisted chains. A rough encounter with a group of men on motorcycles, however, came as a harsh reminder of the domestic role women are expected to stick to in Gaza.

For my international friends, riding a bike is just a pleasant means of transportation, not a political statement. But as soon as I, a Palestinian woman, decided to join their group, the trip took on another dimension.

You just don't see women riding bikes in Muslim countries. It's not forbidden per say, but it's socially unacceptable. In addition, the Hamas government in Gaza has begun enforcing very strict, sexist rules restricting women's freedom - we can no longer smoke water pipes in cafés, for example. I find all of these rules unfair - stupid, really - so I decided to go on the bike ride as a test, to see what would happen.

Continued: Palestinian woman breaks taboo to cycle across Gaza strip | The Observers
 

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