Thursday, August 27, 2009

Girls forced to wear hijab at Hamas run schools

Wait a minute...I thought women were free to choose to wear the hijab. AFP

GAZA CITY — Schoolgirls in Hamas-run Gaza have been told to wear traditional full-length robes and headscarves in what is being seen as the latest move towards enforcing conservative Islam in the besieged enclave.

In numerous girls' schools in the Palestinian territory, which reopened their doors on Sunday following the summer recess, students were told they would be sent home if they do not conform with clothing regulations.

"We invite all schoolgirls to wear the jilbab," a senior official in the Hamas education ministry, Mahmud Abu Hassira, told AFP. The jilbab is a traditional, long, loose-fitting robe worn by women in some Muslim countries.

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