THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH: Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have started grabbing young men with long or gel-styled spiky hair off the streets, bundling them into jeeps and shaving their heads, two of those targeted have said. It is the latest sign that the Islamic militants are imposing their strict practices on the population.
Hamas has been slowly forcing its fundamentalist interpretation of the religion on already conservative Gaza since it overran the territory in 2007. But the new crackdown on long hair and tight or low-waist trousers - in several cases accompanied by beatings - appears to be one of the most aggressive phases of the campaign so far.
The crackdown began last week, and two of those targeted said they were rounded up in separate sweeps in Gaza City that included more than two dozen young men.
House painter Ayman al-Sayed, 19, had shoulder-length hair before police grabbed him and shaved his head on Thursday. "The only thing I want to do is leave this country," said the teenager, who despite his ordeal defiantly wore stylish but outlawed narrow-leg tan khakis on Sunday.
"I am scared. They just take you from the street without reason. I don't know what they are going to do next." » | Monday, April 08, 2013
