The Cutting Edge

In lawless Somalia, the Al Shabaab—“the Youngsters”—Muslim terrorist group has sent its gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to gather up women who appear to violate Islamic law for wearing bras that they claim are “deceptive.” According to locals, Al Shabaabi round up women who appear to have firm bosoms and then inspects them to determine whether that firmness is natural or not. If the firmness is the result of wearing a bra, they are ordered to remove it and shake their breasts in the presence of the Al Shabaab men.

Al Shabaab—many of whose members appeared masked when in public—have forced Somali women to wear full veils. They whipped two girls on October 15, as other women have also been whipped, for wearing bras. Al Shabaab believes that women’s breasts should be firm naturally, or lie flat.

Al Shabaab is enforcing a particularly strict reading of Sharia (Islamic law). They have, in addition to bras, banned dancing and music at weddings, musical ringtones, and the playing or watching of soccer. They have also severed a hand and foot from each of two men accused of theft. Al Shabaab is one of a number of Muslim terrorist organizations that colludes with Al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden.

The Al Shabaab organization has imposed a harsh form of order in large areas of southern and central Somlia, which has been virtually stateless for over a decade. Islam was historically moderate in the Somalia region. Al Shabaab’s strict adherence to Sharia and its hardline measures have come in for some opposition. One man was jailed when he resisted a group of Al Shabaab who had humiliated his sister by demanding that she remove her bra. Dozens of men who have been caught without a beard have been publicly whipped, as has been the case with Afghanistan’s Taliban enforcers.

Islamic law concerning gender roles and the status of women harkens back to the Koran, which forms the basis of Sharia. According to the Koran, a woman’s testimony is worth but half that of a man:  "Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her" (2:282). It is up to men to enforce Islamic law.

The Koran instructs husbands to beat discordant wives, saying that "men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other," and that therefore "good women are the obedient." And as for those who are not obedient, the Koran directs men to give them a warning, send them to a separate bed, and "beat them" (4:34). It also allows for marriage to pre-pubescent girls, stipulating that Islamic divorce procedures "shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated" (65:4).

Cutting Edge senior correspondent Martin Barillas is the editor of Spero Forum.