Group alleges Hamas has dress code for female attorneys in Gaza

Jul 26, 2009, 17:45 GMT

Gaza City - Female attorneys working in the Gaza Strip face a requirement to wear headscarves and long-sleeved dresses based on a recent court ruling, a human rights group operating in the salient alleged Sunday.

Abdel Ra'oof el-Halabi, chief of the high court in Gaza, reportedly issued the order July 9, according to documents released by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

The decision, according to PCHR, requires 'all female advocates and lawyers should wear the hijab and the jilbab while they are in court. The decision will be active by September 1, 2009.'

The hijab is a headscarf. The jilbab is a long-sleeved dress.

Hamas, a radical Islamic movement, which is an extension of the worldwide Brotherhood Moslem Movement and has de facto control of the Gaza Strip, has denied the claims.

Government institutions in the Gaza Strip are controlled by Hamas. The group seized control of the impoverished enclave in June 2007, routing security forces loyal to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.

'The center believes that this decision contradicts with the law and represents an unjustified interference into the lawyers' affairs. It seriously hurt private freedoms and women's right by imposing the hijab and the jilbab,' said the PCHR in its statement.

El-Halabi's decision also details a uniform that should be worn by male and female attorneys while operating in court.

The new standards were publicized earlier this week by London- based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, which said the court uniform requirements were part of a broader 'morals list' Gaza wants to impose on the Gaza Strip.

Other measures would prevent the display of female mannequins in store windows and 'improper driving near women' - which the paper took to mean honking at attractive women as they walked down the street.

The daily also said that armed Hamas squads would prohibit men and women from mixing at crowded public events where it was likely they would come into contact with each other.

Hamas refuted the London report.

'The government denies that it had made any new decision or given instructions violating the existed laws regarding that issue,' said Taher al-Noono, a spokesman for Hamas government.

'The reports try to convoy an unrealistic image of the situation in the Gaza Strip,' al-Noono added in a statement sent to the media.

However, al-Noono stressed that his government, which seized power after routing the secular Fatah movement of president Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, 'is extremely observing the general morals and it keeps calling for kind ethics.'

The Ministry of Religious Affairs in Gaza has launched a campaign calling for removing images that don't conform with Islam. For example, preachers tour Gaza markets and urge storeowners to hide posters that show women.