Gaza’s Virtuous Campaign

Gaza’s Virtuous Campaign

Every where I turned this week I was being bombarded with the headline… HAMAS CRACKSDOWN IN GAZA… surely it couldn’t be the same Gaza I was living in, nor the Hamas officials I was speaking to?

Article after article in western media from the New York times to British papers talked about how Hamas had begun a crackdown on individual freedoms in Gaza. Hamas forces female lawyers to wear veils read headlines! I was astonished and began to immediately investigate…

And in typical fashion… what I learned was a bit more complex than what the Western media portrayed.

So lets walk through the steps and the terminology… first, the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Gaza (yes, under the control of the deposed Hamas controlled government) has launched a public virtues campaign. The aim? To warn people against smoking or watching too much satellite television… and for shopkeepers suggesting to them how to display women’s clothing. Now, you may wonder what place a program like this has in an already conservative society but nonetheless it does exist. But is this any different from similar programs in the West where missionaries commonly come door to door promoting a church or warning of certain vices? Granted, western governments dont have Ministries of Religious Affairs, like Gaza, but that has to do more with the role of religion in societies, particularly conservative ones like Gaza.  But its important to emphasize, this program does not have the support of the wider Hamas-controlled Cabinet. In fact, the campaigners have no legal power or authority to enforce anything they promote. They simply educate and persuade whoever wants to listen.

Its a bit of a stretch to take one program at one ministry that does not have the support of the broader government as an example to paint a broad stroke claiming “Hamas cracks down on individual freedoms”, no? In fact, the powerful Minister of Interior has repeatedly told Al Jazeera that he would personally follow any case where individuals complained that their freedoms were being restricted.

Earlier this week, the Chief Justice of the High Judicial Council in Gaza revived and decided to enforce a law already in place in the Palestinian legal from 1930. The law calls on Palestinian lawyers, both male and females to wear appropriate court attire. For female lawyers that meant also covering their hair. The move drew strong criticism from civil society and human rights organization. Again Hamas was branded as forcing women to wear veils! And again, thats not true. In fact, Deposed Prime Minister Ismail’s Haniyeh’s Hamas controlled Government has once again rejected to flat out endorse the move. In an unusual move, the deposed Prime Minister has ordered the Minister of Justice to review the legality of the Judge’s decision. Not to mention, the judge is not actually making the law, he is simply reviving it by saying it will be enforced.

The Hamas cabinet issued a statement saying it would safeguard the individual rights of all people. Doesnt really fit the bill of the Western media’s headlines that “Hamas is cracking down” does it?

Having said that, human rights organizations and civil society are concerned that such attempts could be the beginning of an alarming trend that may soon be more difficult to reverse or even criticize. And that is why many here are watching closely, not just to see what happens to the society, but also what happens to Hamas, which acknowledges that within the movement there are always discussions about what role the movement and the government should play in promoting virtues. But to draw conclusions that Hamas is moving in the direction of a Taliban-style control of Gaza is misleading and inaccurate.