Hamas journalist blames women for swine flu epidemic

Shawer: Women are the fastest transmitters of viral diseases London – Tom Rollins A Palestinian columnist has courted controversy after blaming women in Gaza for a recent outbreak of swine flu, the Middle East Media Research Institute [MEMRI] has reported .Issam Shawer, who writers for the Hamas daily Falastin, claimed women are the worst transmitters of infections because they gather in groups, calling on Palestinian women to wear veils to protect them from air-borne diseases.
The latest round of flu contaminations has left four people dead, and others seriously ill in hospitals across the West Bank.
"I believe that women are the fastest transmitters of viral diseases and epidemics and I am not making baseless accusations when I describe them as such,” Shawer claimed.
“[For example, when there is need] to make a condolence call, women congregate in one place,” the Falastin columnist reasoned. “They comfort [the family] and also trade stories -- this is very important to them -- and spread news and rumours, but also viruses that waft through the stuffy air.”
International media and women’s organisations have strongly condemned the article.