Gaza govt cracks down on male salon workers

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Five male hairdressers were summoned to Gaza police stations this week and compelled to sign a pledge that they would stop working in their salons, which serve primarily women.

The government passed a law in March 2010, prohibiting men from cutting women's hair in Gaza salons, but the edict had not been enforced until recently.

At least five salon owners told Ma'an they were summoned to the Rimal-district police station in Gaza City on Saturday, and told that if they entered their shops again, they would face a 20,000 shekel ($5,500) fine.

"According to the commitment I signed, I can’t enter my own salon ... I tried to tell detectives that the work is performed by women, but they insisted that I can’t run the salon," owner Hatim Al-Ghoul said, adding that most of his clients would boycott the salon if he were no longer in charge.

Al-Ghoul said that at first he had refused to sign, but eventually relented when he was threatened with jail time.

A second salon owner, Adnan Barakat, said he was also threatened with incarceration if he was caught working.

On government letterhead, one salon owner said, the start of the document read:

“I hereby pledge to practice good manners, good behavior, and to avoid sinful acts.”

Nael, Ramzi, and Muhammad Baltaji also told Ma'an that they were summoned by police to swear they would not longer work at the salons.

"We are dealt with as suspects, yet we committed no offense… Are we drug dealers, or terrorists?” asked Barakat.

He said he had been a hairdresser for 27 years, "its my profession, my only source of income," he lamented.

Barakat works alongside his wife and a handful of other women. "Corruption can be anywhere and not necessarily at women's salons. At clinics, physicians check patients behind closed doors alone, why are we being singled out? Each salon has at least four or five women working, so we don't work alone with female clients," he explained.

Frustrated and wondering what he would do to support his family, Barakat said that if the local government was going to make his work illegal, they should send him to Europe to work his trade there, or find him some other means of support.