GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Women in Gaza have increasingly begun forming and performing as all-female dance troupes to perform at local Muslim and Christian weddings. Their initiative has been driven in part by a desire to earn money, given the lack of job opportunities and Gaza's high rates of unemployment, as well as to make space for women in a conservative society only accustomed to male dance troupes.

According to statistics released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on March 7, female unemployment in Gaza and the West Bank stood at 44.7% at the end of 2016, compared to male unemployment, which totaled 22.2%. Women in Gaza tend to work in jobs and professions where they are not around men, including as teachers in girls schools and in sewing and embroidery enterprises.

Mahmoud Salem is busy planning his wedding, scheduled for April 5 at a hotel in Gaza City. He had already booked a male-only fadous band, when he decided to also hire a female troupe for a women's celebration of his marriage. The female dancers charge the same as the men, about $250.

Salem told Al-Monitor, “I decided to hire the female troupe at the request of my mother, who had seen them perform at a wedding in Gaza and was very impressed by them. To be honest, I find it a bit odd and out of the ordinary.”