Gaza: Rescind Religious Dress Code for Girls

[oberliner]

NEW YORK - September 4 - Hamas authorities in Gaza should suspend all orders that violate personal freedoms, including imposition of an Islamic dress code for female students, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch has received reports from Gaza residents that since the school year opened in late August, schools have been turning away female students for not wearing a headscarf or traditional gown, on the basis of new unofficial orders to schools from Hamas authorities. They are being told they must wear a jilbab, a long traditional gown, and a headscarf. Previously, the uniform typically required for female public school students was a long denim skirt and shirt. The new orders appear to have been issued without any legal basis.

"No one should be forced to wear religious clothing, including the headscarf, to receive an education" said Nadya Khalife, the women's rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch. "These new orders are simply arbitrary."

The Center for Women's Legal Research and Consulting in Gaza reported that Hamas authorities have given orders to school administrators and teachers to pay attention to girls' dress, especially in secondary schools. The center's executive director, Zeinab Ghonaimy, told Human Rights Watch that a school administrator slapped one female student in front of her schoolmates for not wearing the jilbab.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/04-3

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. For Hamas, power comes out of the barrel of a gun

[pelsar]

6. its a start...and its good they made it public

religious dress or no school......?...sheesh......I hate the school uniform mentality in any shape or form, even when the intentions are good (the concept being that if everyone wears the same clothes than they will all feel equal....)

[Violet_Crumble]

8. I went to a high school where the uniform was the great equaliser....

Plus the uniform made truants hanging out at the Plaza easy to spot in a crowd. I thought the uniform was ugly, but my parents with four kids and only one income weren't able to afford to buy me the latest fashions to wear to school, so I didn't mind that we had to wear a uniform. The rich kids always managed to flaunt their wealth in other ways, and I think part of the reason I didn't mind the uniform was that I was a lazy kid and a uniform saved the angst of deciding what to wear. But if it'd been a uniform enforced on girls only or because of religious reasons I wouldn't have been so mellow about it....

[ProgressiveMuslim]

9. The kids already wear a uniform.

This move is making it more conservative.

Personally this made me sick.

This is what happens when people are getting fucked from both sides... too exhausted to do anything about it.

(this is actually weeks' old news. I was surprised Obie hadn't posted it a while back. Hamas officially denied this was their rule, claiming it was the prerogative of the school master/mistress.)

[oberliner]

12. This HRW statement is not "week's old news"

The situation that they are commenting on in their statement has been in place since August (when I first posted an article about it here), and, apparently, is ongoing. This, however, is a brand new statement from Human Rights Watch posted here on the day that it was released.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

16. The move in the schools is a couple of weeks old. I was shocked you hadn't posted something about

it.

[oberliner]

17. There was a post made about this incident when it first occurred

I'm surprised that you missed it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=284632&mesg_id=284632

[bemildred]

2. Good! nt

[oberliner]

4. What is good about this?

Are you being sarcastic?

[Violet_Crumble]

5. I know you weren't asking me, but I think it's good too...

I have serious objections to girls or women being forced to dress in a particular way and being physically punished when they don't. If it was a school uniform that applied to everyone regardless of gender, it'd be a different story, but this is based on religion and gender and it's wrong. I'm glad HRW are going in to bat for students in Gaza and I wish Hamas would listen to them and change that rule....

[LeftishBrit]

7. I think that Bemildred probably meant that it's good that HRW are criticizing the dress rules...

not that the dress rules are good.

I certainly hope that the rules get changed.

[bemildred]

10. Well duh?

I think the public criticism of these stupid mysoginist MoFos is excellent too.

[LeftishBrit]

11. I think we're in agreement.

[oberliner]

13. I thought maybe you misunderstood the headline

That, perhaps, you took it mean that Hamas had rescinded the policy, rather than that HRW was asking them to do so.

[bemildred]

14. No, I was applauding HRW for criticizing religious dress policies for women.

Find upstanding organization HRW.

[valerief]

3. I remember here in the U.S. when we women could start wearing pantsuits to the office.

That was in the early seventies. Liberation!

[bemildred]

15. Women burning their bras, who can forget?

:thumbsup: