Showing posts with label shaking hands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shaking hands. Show all posts

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Somali Militants Ban Handshakes Between Men and Women

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Islamic militants in southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public.

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Somali women holding banners reading 'Allah is Great' during a mass demonstration in support of the recent merger between Islamist group Hizbul Islam and al-Shabab. Photo: The Daily Telegraph

People who break the rules could be imprisoned, whipped or even executed.

Al-Shabab, the Islamic extremists, have already banned women from working in public, leaving many mothers with a terrible choice: risk execution by going to sell some tea or vegetables in the marketplace, or stay safely at home and watch the children slowly starve.

"It's an awful rule. I feel like I'm under arrest. I've started to ignore the greetings of the women I know to avoid punishment," said Hussein Ali, a resident of the southern Somali town of Jowhar. The edict is also being enforced in the town of Elasha.

Gunmen are searching buses for improperly dressed women or women travelling alone, said student Hamdi Osman in Elasha. She said she was once beaten for wearing Somali traditional dress instead of the long, shapeless black robes favoured by the fighters.

The Islamists' insistence that women wear the long, heavy robes also forces many women to stay at home because they can't afford the new clothing. >>> | Saturday, January 08, 2011

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Michelle Obama Brushes Off Indonesia Handshake Row

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Michelle Obama has brushed off a row with an Indonesian minister who was reluctant to shake her hand.


America's First Lady visited southeast Asia's biggest mosque with her husband on Wednesday, a day after Indonesia's communications minister had told Twitter followers that he had reluctantly shaken hands with her at a formal reception.

Tifatul Sembiring, a conservative Muslim who refuses to touch women he is not related to tweeted: "I tried to prevent it with my two hands but Mrs Michelle moved her hands too close to me, then we touched."

Video footage of the meeting suggested otherwise, however, showing Mr Sembiring reaching out to shake Michelle's hand like the other dignitaries.

The Obamas much-anticipated visit to the Istiqlal Mosque in central Jakarta was one of the last stops on Mr Obama's twice-postponed visit to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

Grand Imam Haji Mustafa Ali Yaqub showed the Obamas around the massive domed structure, which was still being built when a young Mr Obama lived in the nearby suburb of Menteng as a child in the late 1960s. >>> | Wednesday, November 19, 2010

Flashback: Indonesian Mosque Obama Visited Greeted Ahmadinejad as a “Rock Star” Where He Called For The Destruction of Israel, Predicted Sharia Would Rule World >>>

HT: Pastorius of iBloga >>> Pastorius | Wednesday, November 10, 2010