Hamas launches 'virtue campaign' in Gaza

Shopkeepers in the Gaza Strip have been ordered to remove lingerie from their windows as part of a "virtue campaign" launched by Hamas.

Palestinian girls walk past a mannequin with a plastic bag wrapped around its face in a shop at the market in Gaza City
Palestinian girls walk past a mannequin with a plastic bag wrapped around its face in a shop at the market in Gaza City Credit: Photo: AP

The Islamic group has also told female lawyers to wear headscarves in court and teenagers have been ordered to stop playing "suggestive" modern music.

The campaign was started despite previous promises not to impose an Islamic way of life on the strip's 1.5 million people.

Hamas have been patrolling the beach asking men to cover up bear chests and separating groups of single people congregating together.

The Religious Affairs Ministry is in charge of overseeing the campaign. Among its reported regulations is a request that men and women celebrate separately at wedding parties.

Abdullah Abu Jarbou, the deputy religious affairs minister, said: "We have to encourage people to be virtuous and keep them away from sin."

Officials say the campaign's guidelines are currently voluntary but Abu Jarbou, the deputy minister predicted that Islamic law would eventually be imposed.

"In the future, it's inevitable it will be implemented," he said.

The moves in Gaza stand in stark contrast to life in the West Bank where the secular Fatah rules with the political and economic support of the West.

There has been a rush of foreign aid and cooperation with Israel that has helped spur an economic revival. Consumerism and secular life thrives, especially in the larger cities, even though much of the population is religiously conservative.