BBC: A hairdryer whirrs. Teenage girls reach for sequins, glitter and hairpins. It's the weekend in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and seven sisters are dressing for a wedding.
The eldest, Ashwaq, 21, a university graduate, wants to be a journalist.
Asked what she thinks about Yemen's new self-appointed morality authority, she looks up from styling her sister's hair.
"The first thing they'll do is stop women from working. Then they'll force us to wear the veil."
Yemen is a conservative Islamic society, where parliament boasts only one woman out of 301 MPs.
The state is weak and the courts have limited reach. Instead, cultural practices - such as veiling and gender segregation - are enforced by neighbours, relatives and community leaders.
But on 15 July, a panel of Islamic clerics - supported by prominent tribal chiefs - announced the creation of a Meeting for Protecting Virtue and Fighting Vice.
The unofficial body will alert Yemen's police force to infringements of Islamic law and hold annual conferences to monitor progress.
"This new vice and virtue movement has the potential to undermine the government," says Rahma Hugaira, chair of Yemen's Media Women Forum.
"Civil society groups are working hard to modernise society, to establish a social contract grounded in our constitution and reflected in our laws. A group using religion as a weapon threatens all the progress we have achieved."
Vigilantes
The vice and virtue movement reportedly started in Hodeidah, where "morality guardians" began challenging women walking alone and driving without a chaperone.
Couples were asked to prove they were married or closely related. Similar reports began to emerge from Yemen's second city, Aden.
In June, security forces in Hodeidah arrested seven Christian missionaries. In Sanaa, a policemen accompanied by bearded vigilantes raided a Chinese massage parlour and a chain of restaurants. Yemen Divided on Vice and Virtue >>> By Ginny Hill, Sanaa | August 11, 2008
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