GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Nathalie, who refused to give out her full name, is getting ready to go to school in Gaza City. She puts on a blouse and a denim skirt, loads the books in her backpack and, most importantly before stepping out of the door, braids her hair as Christian girls are directed to do by the headmistress of the Ahmed Shawki Secondary School for Girls.
“The first day of school, the headmistress called upon the Christian students to come forward in front of the entire morning queue. She grabbed the hair of a girl among us and started to braid it, saying that this is how we should have our hair done or she will force us to wear the hijab within a week,” Nathalie told Al-Monitor.
The headmistress could not carry out her threats. The five girls, who are all Christian, remain the only ones among 900 students who do not wear headscarves.
“There is no law imposing the hijab on students in government schools in Gaza, whether elementary or secondary,” Ziad Thabet, undersecretary of the Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor during an interview at his office. “The headmistress of the Ahmed Shawki School, Iman Abu Samra, did not force the hijab upon schoolgirls." According to him, the girls who wear the hijab do so because of their religious conviction.
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