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Women working in Palestinian television in Gaza have been ordered to avoid walking alone in the street after radical Islamists threatened to slit their throats if they do not dress in religious garb while on air. The threat from the extremist fringe group Swords of Truth is being taken seriously by female journalists and television presenters, who staged a march in protest at the action yesterday. Anti-vice vigilantes from the group have bombed several Internet cafes, music shops, pool halls, a restaurant and a Christian bookstore in recent weeks. "We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and morals of this nation," read a statement sent to news organisations in Gaza. The group accused the women of being "without any shame or morals." "Yesterday I was just sitting down and thinking, if I died, who is going to take care of my two kids?" said Lana Shaheen, 35, the Syrian-born head of English programming at Palestine TV in Gaza and an on-air correspondent for a Jordanian television network. Miss Shaheen, who has lived in Gaza for 11 years with her Palestinian husband, does not wear a headscarf. And while many of her colleagues do cover their heads, they also "wear jeans, like all journalists everywhere". Yesterday, Radwan Abu Ayyash, the Palestinian deputy minister of culture, condemned the threat as coming from criminals who did not understand Islam. But he said that extra precautions would have to be taken nonetheless. "The women themselves will have to be protected and because we are a tribal society - everybody knows everybody here - the families and the police might work together" in arranging escorted cars and more bodyguards, said Mr Abu Ayyash. He helped to found the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in 1993 and stepped down as its chairman two years ago. The television network has posted extra security guards outside its offices in Ramallah and Gaza City. Mr Ayyash said that in 1993 only a very few women working in all its broadcast operations wore headscarves and the matter was not addressed in their employment policy. Today, while many of the network's 15 or so female presenters already cover their heads, their Western clothing and make-up does not conform to strictest interpretations of the Koran. In conservative Gaza, an increasing number of young, pious women are adopting the full-face veil, or niqab, and gloves along with headscarves and long robes. Now, Miss Shaheen - no stranger to violence after covering war between Palestinian factions and years of Israeli air strikes and ground operations - said that she is afraid to walk alone in the street, and is using her television crew as bodyguards. "Frankly speaking, I am afraid. Not only me, all of the employees at Palestine TV are afraid. But we have to do our jobs as journalists," she said. |