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.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
RSS