Hamas Intensifies Gaza 'Islamization'

Hamas has recently started an undeclared campaign to combat Western clothing and hairstyles in the Gaza Strip, alongside other campaigns launched by the Ministry of Culture and the Hamas-affiliated student body to raise awareness and combat Western culture and behavior within the Palestinian community in Gaza.

The Palestinian police have detained dozens of young men for wearing “waist-down jeans” and hair gel, and having “Western” haircuts. This has sparked a wave of protests and public criticism on the part of human rights organizations, as they consider these measures to be an encroachment on personal freedoms without any legal basis.

According to a number of young men, some interviewed by Al-Monitor and some that have uploaded videos on YouTube, they have been arrested by the police while walking in the street. Some of them have been forced to have their hair cut, while others have been beaten and humiliated for wearing waist-down jeans or hair gel.

Mohammed, 32, who refused to mention his family name for fear of reprisal, said to Al-Monitor, “I was at work when I received a surprising phone call from my younger brother telling me that he had been arrested [and was being held] at the police station in the east of Gaza City. He wanted me to go to the station and bail him out. When I went there I was surprised to see that his head had been shaved in the shape of a cross and he was forced to sign a pledge not to grow his hair in this way again.”