Here is a lesson in the craven opportunism of jihadists, as they immediately discard and subjugate former allies, but even more so in the consequences of accepting Sharia law in hope of gaining security: The nature of the insecurity only shifts as the state takes up the role of terrorizing citizens, with the full force of Islamic law behind it. Sharia Alert from the LA Times:
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For 15 years, Somalia was ruled by clan-based strongmen, each with his own private army. The capital was divided among the warlords and controlled by their AK-47-toting fighters, many of them children.
Over that period of chaos, violence and war, the women of Mogadishu have risked their lives time and again — and in the process changed their country.
First they became the wartime breadwinners in this male-dominated society.
“Women had to help the family to survive. That’s when they got their voice, when they shared the life of the family with the men,” said Malyun Sheik Haidar, 31, who publishes a women’s newspaper.
This spring, women stepped up again. Weary of suffering stoically, they jammed the switchboards of Mogadishu’s independent radio stations with angry protests about the warlords’ violence.
It marked a stunning shift in Somali culture. People here call it a popular revolution that helped defeat the warlords and ushered in the reign of the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts.
But now that women have helped end the brutal power of the warlords, they may be forced to abandon their newfound status.
Already women are swapping traditional Somali dress, which is open at the face, for the Saudi-style black hijab, which covers the face and body.
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Like many women in Mogadishu, [Maryam Mohammed] feels less vulnerable to violence nowadays, but she is afraid it will be harder to find work under the Islamic regime.
“I don’t see them as something good,” she said. “I’d like to leave Somalia if I can and do business, have a small shop or even a job with a decent salary, like a secretary or a cleaner.”
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Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic courts won popular support in the mid-1990s by trying to enforce a degree of order, reducing theft and crime. When the courts’ militias recently drove the warlords from Mogadishu, they had the support of the majority.
The courts represent various strands of Islam, some more fundamentalist than others, but there are fears that the recent rise of Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys as chairman of the group could mean more repressive, Taliban-style rules. Aweys took over from the more moderate Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who is now chairman of the group’s executive committee.
Ms. Haidar, 31, the women’s newspaper publisher, was recently warned by a figure in the courts to give up working and stay home.
“If this continues, it will close down my newspaper,” she said. “This is our only expression. We are talking about children’s rights and women’s rights, and if they stop us from doing that, it means we lost our rights.”
Even under the more moderate leadership, Islamic guards had been stopping minibuses to check women’s clothing and men’s hairstyles.
Islamic guards grabbed Ismahaan Ali Mohammed, 18, an aspiring actress, and hacked her clothing with scissors because it was deemed too tight and un-Islamic.
Wearing heavy eyeliner that exaggerates her beauty, she and her friend, Nawaal Mohammed, 18, could not be more different from Maryam Mohammed, the former khat trader. They are self-confident, assertive and eager to soak up the pleasures of youth. But these days they must cover their bright dresses with the hijab.
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“Now I’m afraid to be arrested or beaten,” she said. “It’s safer than before, but we have no freedom. We are not happy with this Islamic Sharia law.”
She dreads donning a drab hijab before leaving the house.