Somalia: 32 dancers whipped by Islamist rebels...

 Islamist insurgents whipped 32 people in Somalia on Saturday after arresting them for taking part in a traditional dance in rebel-held territory south of the capital Mogadishu.

Fighters enforcing a strict form of sharia law have been slowly advancing on the city, raising the stakes in their two-year rebellion and undermining fragile U.N.-brokered peace talks to end 17 years of chaos in the Horn of Africa nation.

Last month, they stoned to death a young woman accused of adultery in the rebel-controlled southern port of Kismayu.

Islamist spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow said those arrested had been warned several times against dancing.

"We arrested 25 women and seven men who were dancing near Balad (town). We released them after whipping them. We warned them many times, but they wouldn't listen," he told Reuters. More...

See also:

1. Somalia: 13-year-old girl raped by three men; they go free, but the victim is stoned to death.
2. A country without the State? A look at Somalia and the Xeer...
3. Afghanistan: 1500 schoolgirls stay home after acid attack...
4. Burying alive 5 women is no big deal in Baluchistan; it's only tradition...