The Shabab, Somalia’s most powerful Islamist insurgent group, outlawed school bells in a southern town on Thursday after deciding that they conflicted with Islam, residents said.
School principals in the town, Jowhar, about 55 miles north of Mogadishu, the capital, had been summoned to a meeting and informed that the bells could no longer be used because they sounded like church bells, according to one principal.
“There was no bell rung in our school today,” said Hamdi, a student at the Kulmis Primary and Secondary School, who asked that her full name not be used out of fear for her safety. “Some teachers were hitting the doors as the period finished. It is really confusing.”
The Shabab also outlawed the observance of internationally recognized days like World AIDS Day, saying that only Islamic festivals could be recognized.
Insurgent groups in Somalia have increasingly alienated the population by imposing a harsh interpretation of Islam, stoning people to death and amputating the hands and feet of thieves. They have also issued strict edicts controlling the more mundane aspects of daily life, banning things like bras and soccer games in their territory.
This week, more than a dozen radio stations in Mogadishu stopped playing any form of music — even to introduce daily programs like news broadcasts — after another Islamist insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, warned radio stations to cease playing songs or face “serious consequences.”
The ultimatum left broadcasters scrambling to find creative ways around the ban, leading them to play recordings of horses galloping, roosters crowing, engines roaring or guns being fired — a common sound in the capital — to signal the start of various broadcasts.
Source: nytimes
No comments:
Post a Comment