When Shoruk Shaheen looks in the mirror, she likes what she sees, especially the change in her face after a cosmetic procedure gaining popularity in Gaza: dimple creation surgery.
The resident of the Palestinian enclave had the procedure a month ago at a clinic in downtown Gaza City.
“If you have a beautiful smile then you are a beautiful person,” said the 26-year-old communications manager, whose eyes remained fixed on her mirror as she admired the new indentation in her left cheek.
Photo: AFP
Dimple creation surgery is performed worldwide, but has particular appeal in Gaza, thanks to its low cost and relative safety.
Expensive, riskier procedures are problematic in Gaza, a deeply impoverished territory with a weak healthcare system and under an Israeli blockade since 2007, the year Hamas militants took power.
Creating an artificial dimple is “very simple, very easy, very fast” and carries little risk, said Jalaa al-Talmas, Shaheen’s surgeon.
When performing the procedure, which takes just 10 minutes, al-Talmas said he applies local anesthetic to the cheek and mouth before making a slight incision in the zygomaticus muscle that extends from the cheekbone to the mouth.
Al-Talmas said he performs the dimple procedure for several young women per month, most of whom request it after seeing the results on a friend of a relative.
Al-Talmas said he believes the procedure is more popular among Gazans than other Arab women in the Middle East.
Gazan women became aware of it from those who had traveled to Egypt and the Gulf, doctors say.
It costs US$30 to US$45 per cheek — compared with thousands in some Western clinics.
Shaheen started with just her left cheek, but said she plans to do the other side.
In addition to being cheap, cosmetic dimple creation does not attract the snickers that a procedure like breast implants would trigger in a conservative, Islamist society.
Dimples “are not a problem,” as the procedure does not invite social stigma, Shaheen said.
At the Victoria aesthetic center, Dr Hassan Ali Aljaish said he saw no issue with a procedure that brought “a little happiness” to women living in a society replete with hardships, notably the blockade.
Aljaish said he typically receives about 30 requests a month for dimple creation.
While he said it is a growing trend, he cautioned against the impression that “the people of Gaza get [cosmetic] operations every day.”
Dimple creation and other cosmetic procedures, “may alleviate the suffering” of life in Gaza, “but we must not forget that this [suffering] exists, said Aljaish, whose practice is mostly for Palestinians needing reconstructive surgery after being injured during hostilities between Hamas and Israel.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS