A leading group of Palestinian Muslim clerics this week issued a religious ruling demanding Palestinian hairdressers stay in line with Islamic law.
The Supreme Fatwa Council of Palestine stated that women are permitted to be employed as hairdressers, but may only service female customers who are trying to look more attractive for their own husbands, reported the Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency.
Furthermore, if a foreign man is having his hair cut, all women must leave the premises.
Violating these boundaries would cause "suspicion" regarding the offender's adherence to Islamic law, declared the council.
The ruling came around the same time that religious authorities in Iran decided to outlaw "Western-style haircuts."
Barbers in the Islamic Republic who were found giving such haircuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers were threatened with having their licenses revoked, reported Iran's ISNA student news agency.