Nablus: Soldiers Ask Women to Remove Head Cover, Residents Outraged

PNN – Palestine News Network – 14.01.11 – 13:42

Nablus – PNN – Residents of Barta al-Sharqia village, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, expressed outrage when soldiers tried to force local women to remove their head coverings at a military checkpoint.

Palestinian Women at a West Bank checkpoint – Archive

The incident took place on Thursday evening when a group of local women were going back to their village after work. Soldiers at the checkpoint separating the village from Nablus asked them to remove their head coverings before the women could pass through.

The group of women refused and called their families in the village. Representatives from the village arrived at the checkpoint and argued with the soldiers, who let the women go without removing their head covers. For religious reasons Muslim women with head coverings do not remove it in front of men outside their family.

Barta al-Sharqia is on the Israeli side of the wall that surrounds the West Bank, but within the Palestinian side of the 1949 Green Line. Villagers have to pass through a military checkpoint every time they leave or enter their village.

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PNN – Palestine News Network – Nablus: Soldiers Ask Women to Remove Head Cover, Residents Outraged.