Hamas Says Smoking by Women Banned on Beach

Update, July 20: A Hamas Interior Ministry official has clarified a new prohibition on women smoking flavored tobacco through a water pipe. An AOL News story on July 16, citing proprietors in Gaza City, reported that Hamas officials had informed them that shisha smoking by women was banned in restaurants across the Gaza Strip.

The ban is "just on the beach," ministry spokesman Ihab Al-Ghussein said. "All the other places it's not a problem, just the beach is forbidden."

Why the beach?

"We received many complaints from families about their children seeing some women smoking," he said. "It's a social tradition for us. So after we received the complaints, we said they should stop that. If they want that, they should go to some closed places or cafeterias."

However, he said no penalties will be imposed if women do smoke shisha on the beach.

Original Story:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (July 16) -- Gaza is not an easy place to have a good time. Racked by poverty and despair, bereft of cinemas and most other public entertainment, and still hobbled by a trade embargo on goods the Israeli military deems sensitive, the 1.5 million inhabitants of the coastal enclave have to make do with what they've got.

One of those things, for many crowding Gaza's Mediterranean beaches, has long been shisha, flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah, or water pipe, the glowing coals of which illuminate a darkness made more frequent these days by power cuts. In a bizarre twist of affairs many here find normal, ruling Islamist group Hamas appeared to entirely ban the small pleasure, before changing their minds and directing the ban toward women.

On Friday, proprietors in Gaza City said roaming Hamas officials informed them that shisha smoking was henceforth banned in restaurants across the Strip, including along the shoreline. They said they were not given a reason for the new prohibition, one of a growing number of strictures introduced not by Israel, but by Hamas, the Islamist group that seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Irate shisha lovers thought they would have to take to their homes to enjoy smoking apple-, cantaloupe- or peach-flavored tobacco.

"I don't know why they banned it," said one beach shack worker who did not want to give his name. "They ban everything they want. Tomorrow, they'll ban tea, then they'll ban coffee. They'll keep banning everything until they ban us," he exclaims. "Gaza is like a prison now."

While Israel has been forced to at least nominally loosen its ban on imports into Gaza, Hamas appears to have been clamping down at home. In an apparent effort to enforce more conservative interpretations of Islamic life on the Strip, in October the militant group banned women from riding on the backs of motorcycles. In March, Hamas banned men from working in women's hair salons, vowing to "arrest and try" violators.

Men are now often approached to prove they are related or married to women with whom they are walking down the street. If they cannot show paperwork on the spot, they are hauled to the police station for questioning. As Israel eased its three-year blockade on the Strip, Hamas has not allowed Palestinian Authority newspapers to enter along with Israeli goods.

"They are religious and they want the young people to be religious too," explained Ahmed, a taxi driver. He, for one, is not thrilled. "There's already nothing to do here."

Others saw the latest measures against tobacco in a better light. "Maybe they are doing this because it's against our religion to harm yourself," says Iman, a young woman wearing a hijab, the Islamic headscarf, sitting on the sand.

Perhaps following the frustration expressed by men at the ruling, Hamas later clarified the ban applied to women, and only women in public places, like Gaza's shoreline. Women can still smoke shisha in private restaurants.