On my last visit to Gaza six weeks ago, there were signs of a new Hamas push to impose conservative Islamic values on the region.
At a new Hamas-run checkpoint several hundred yards from Israel's Erez border crossing, Hamas guards rummaged through my suitcase and told me that I could only bring in two bottles of booze into Gaza.
It was the first time since Hamas seized military control in 2007 that border guards searched my luggage for booze - and the first time they took away alcohol.
Now, the AP's Diaa Hadid reports, there are new signs that Hamas is stepping up its efforts to impose conservative values on Gaza's 1.4 million residents.
As Diaa reports, Hamas policeman recently questioned a Palestinian woman for walking on a beach with a man. The woman turned out to be a local journalist, and the man was her brother.
Diaa reports that "Hamas officials in Gaza have publicly urged shopkeepers to take down foreign advertisements showing the shape of women's bodies and to stash away lingerie often displayed in windows. Officials search electronic shops to check if they are selling pornography on tiny flash drives."
"There's an open, public program to preserve public morals in Gaza," local rights activist Isam Younis told the AP. "In reality that means trying to restrict freedoms."
When Hamas won electoral control of the PA parliament in 2006, there were widespread concerns that the Islamist group would ban the sale of booze in the West Bank (where Christian Palestinians make Taybeh beer), force women to wear headscarves and take other steps to create a conservative new social order.
But Hamas never focused much attention on these issues.
I've recently returned from my first trip to Saudi Arabia (more on that to come) and I was telling a friend in Gaza that she had more social freedoms in Gaza City than most women do in Riyadh.
As most people know, women can't drive in Saudi Arabia, single women and men can be detained for meeting in public, all shops close five times a day for prayers, alcohol is largely banned...
But, with more than half of the Saudi population under the age of 25, change is slowly seeping into the country.
Even the feared religious police department is trying once again to revamp its image.
The police have hired outside marketing specialists and installed a researcher as their new international spokesman.
In a rare interview granted to McClatchy Newspapers, Adel Mohsen Gifari described how social change was hitting his own home.
When the religious police commissioned a survey, Gifari had his three daughters take part.
Gifari said he was surprised to see that one of his girls wanted to drive.
Since barring women from getting behind the wheel is something Gifari has spent nearly half his life helping to enforce, he had to spend half an hour convincing his daughter to give up on the idea.
"I told her that driving is allowed in Islam," said Gifari. "But it is more of a cultural thing. We already have a lot of problems on the road when it comes to sexual harassment, with guys flirting with girls in the car. If a woman drives, it's only going to bring more problems."
Saudi might adapt, said Gifari, but there were some core values that would never be changed.
Prostitution will always be barred, he said. So will "magic," alcohol and allowing single women and men to meet in public - something he said can lead to prostitution.
"If one does not adapt, one becomes extinct," said Gifari.
(Top photo: AP/Hamas police patrol a beach in Gaza; Bottom photo: Saudi religious police spokesman Abdel Mohsen Gifari)
I'm confused... is Gidafari saying that the Saudis are adapting by convincing women not to drive? The end result is the same, that women cannot drive.
Also, if the problem is that men will flirt with women, then why not ban men from driving? That will also reduce flirting. It seems that this is a way to convince the West that Saudis are giving women more rights, while in reality the women continue to have little rights.
Comparing the rights of women in Gaza with the rights of the women in Saudi Arabia doesn't give me (or the women in Gaza) much comfort. How about making a comparison to the rights of women in America?
Finally, where do honor killings and other violence against women in Gaza fit into this article? The UN Development Fund for Women has reported increased violence against women in Gaza- http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83614
Posted by: Ian | July 10, 2009 at 11:53 AM