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Palestine: Women to fight for "rights" under Hamas |
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 February 6, 2006
Behind the veil with the women of GazaJennie Matthew
AFP
VEILED: Two Palestinian women look out of their home toward a news conference held by the military wing of Fatah in Gaza City. (REUTERS)
GAZA CITY, Gaza -- Hamas won the election and Enis removed her tantalizing window display of flimsy knickers and negligees. "I'm afraid someone might smash the window," said the 24-year-old boutique owner.
Although the store has not been targeted so far, with the Palestinian territories set to be governed by an Islamic fundamentalist movement and a flourishing business at stake, she and other women are erring on the side of caution.
Her shop is the most expensive lingerie boutique in Gaza City where girls in their late teens come with their mothers to be kitted out for their wedding night, joining a loyal clientele among women in their 40s.
Racks of lacy or transparent, scarlet, black and white undergarments - modeled by a big-chested platinum blonde in Turkish catalogues on the counter - have been crammed into a tiny upstairs room away from prying public eyes.
Customers can flick through the catalogues, choosing anything from micro thongs that leave nothing to the imagination to more demure petticoats or maid's outfits.
"Many Hamas women who cover their faces come in to buy baby dolls. It's normal. They wear them at home for their husbands. We're all human, whether you're from Hamas or Fatah," said Enis.
That is also the message that Hamas MP Huda Qreinawi, a 37-year-old mother-of-four, is keen to promote.
Determined to further women's rights, she says that people in the West distort the image of Islam and assume that all veiled women are voiceless victims of a brutal patriarchal society.
"We need to make men aware of the real importance of women. Women didn't come into life only to be man's servant," she said, sitting cross-legged on the floor of her Bureij refugee camp home.
Her own house-trained husband, who manages a charity, splits the domestic chores 50-50.
"The biggest problem is that women have no self-confidence. This begins when a daughter tries to say something and her father shuts her up, or her brother."
But Qreinawi does not see herself a feminist because she also wants to fight the ground for men's problems.
"I will be so glad if we establish Islamic culture in our country but we'll never impose the hijab or make men wear beards, for example," she said, her face clean of make-up, a single gold ring her only adornment.
But she wants indecent adverts and programs, including US broadcasts of scantily clad women, banned; school textbooks changed to encourage teachers to promote values and mosque support groups fostered.
But in Gaza at least she is preaching to the converted. Scouring the streets for a bareheaded woman is tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack.
Most Palestinians say that religious observance has increased over the last five years. In public, the vast majority of women voluntarily opt for the veil and sweeping long coats enforced on women by some Islamic regimes abroad.
Students at the Islamic University say that female teachers "hourly" check girls' eyelashes and order them to wash off any signs of forbidden mascara.
"We're allowed eye liner, but not mascara and they make us clean our faces if we wear it, so I just re-apply it afterward. It makes the eyes prettier," said Shazer Al Laham, 19, a social studies undergraduate.
Like two of her friends browsing for clothes after a morning in the lecture theater, she is veiled and encased in a long flowing black coat. Like them she voted Hamas, firmly believing in the healing power of religion.
"My father went into the booth with me and asked who I voted for. My parents ordered me to vote Hamas," said Abeer Skik, a 20-year-old psychology student.
Salwa Morshed Yaghi, a 35-year-old widow, opted for the full hijab when her husband died two years ago to fend off unwanted advances from men.
The only flesh on display is a narrow slit around her eyes, designer glasses balanced on the black cloth of her nose, and her white hands.
"Sometimes people call me Bin Laden," she admitted.
"I don't cover up because of Hamas, but because of my religion because men may be tempted by the sight of a beautiful woman."
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