As if the Palestinian people didn’t have enough problems with the occupation and the political splits, we are now experiencing a new controversy, this time a social one.

The problem began last Sunday, Jan. 27, when the board of trustees of Al Aqsa University voted unanimously to impose a “dress code” on female students. The new guidelines include that in addition to the head cover (hijab), all female students must wear the jilbab — the long loose jacket-like cover that extends to the feet, thus not showing any curves in the woman’s body. While this appears to be a binding decision, the statement from the university said that no punishment will be given to those refusing to comply with the dress-code order, but that attempts to change such students' behavior will be applied through “persuasion” rather than punishment.

Angry reactions came from Palestinian officials in Ramallah, the cultural department of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian government, in particular Minister of Higher Education Ali Jirbawi. In a stiff message to the university’s president, Salam al-Agha, Jirbawi reminded him that the university is accredited by the Palestinian National Authority and that the Palestinian Basic Law guarantees “personal freedoms” to all Palestinians.

Ramallah-based Palestinian media joined in the criticism with a quote from a third-year student named Tahrir, who said that had she wanted to abide by the Islamic dress code, she would have gone to the more conservative Islamic University.