Nicholas Neighbors
10:13 AM
09/04/09
Summary:
In Gaza, the authorities are violating personal freedoms by “turning away” young female students that do not wear the traditional Islamic headscarf, or jilbab, whereas before the students were expected to wear long denim skirts and a shirt. The Center for Women’s Legal Research and Consulting in Gaza reported that the Hamas authorities have given orders for school administrators and teachers to follow girls’ dress and a school administrator has even went as far as to slapping a female student for not wearing the traditional jilbab. The Palestine Basic Law guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and expression, and the rules, appeared to be only targeting female students, are discriminatory and violate religious freedoms. Many criticized the new dress code saying, “dress should not be the subject of political regulation,” or “use of coercive methods and sanctions applied to individuals who do not wish to wear religious dress or a specific symbol seen as sanctioned by religion “indicates” legislative and administrative actions which are incompatible with international human rights laws.”
Response:
When looking at the way these female students are being treated, it is difficult for me to imagine not having the rights I have to simply wear the clothes I wear to class. Enforcing a dress code can be a positive thing in some school as it takes away from many cultural biases that can be formed by younger students. Social class becomes important to students later in their school years and a student who may not have the financial capabilities to dress a certain way or wear certain popular clothing can easily become a target for bullying or may find it hard to make friends. Religion based clothing never bothered me in high school. Seeing someone wear something based on their religion was just an accepted thing and nobody was necessarily rejected for wearing the certain items, then again, no one was forced to. By forcing these female students to wear these headscarves, even though it may not even be in their religion to do so, shows their rights as individuals, to make decisions based on religion, are being taken away.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/09/01/gaza-rescind-religious-dress-code-girls
2 comments:
I do not think there should be strict dress codes and only nudity or extremely scandalous clothing violations should be punishable. Fashion is a form of self-expression and individuality.
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