When bras and women are sinners in the eyes of Islamic extremists...

The Shabaab movement in Somalia controls large parts of the south and centre of the country, and because officials in this movement embrace the Wahabi ideology they have imposed their views on Somalis by force and have issued strict decrees banning films, plays, dancing at weddings, football matches and all forms of music, even the ring tones on mobile phones.

Some days ago these extremists carried out a strange operation: they arrested a Somali woman and whipped her in public because she was wearing a bra. They announced clearly that wearing these bras was unIslamic because it is a form of fraud and deception.

We may well ask what wearing bras has to do with religion, why they would consider them to be a form of fraud and deception, and how they managed to arrest the woman wearing the bra when all Somali women go around with their bodies completely covered. Did they appoint a special female officer to inspect the breasts of women passing by in the street? One Somali woman called Halima told the Reuters news agency: "Al Shabaab forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts... They first banned the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women's chests. They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat." More...

Don't miss:

1. Islam needs a sexual revolution, says Turkish writer...
2. "The niqab is a tradition, nothing to do with religion...
3. Atheism creeping into Iraq?
4. Coptic Christian beheaded in Egypt...
5. Sudan's "trouser" journalist guilty but escapes flogging...
6. Burying alive 5 women is no big deal in Baluchistan...
7. Somalia: 13-year-old girl raped by three men; they go free, but the victim is stoned to death...