Where a bra will get you whipped

Those are the chilling words that often accompany the death wish that suicide bombers have, the blood bath of which they invite hapless and often innocent victims, far removed from their grievances, to partake in.
I will be the first to admit that the longer I live, the less faith I’m having in humanity and even worse am beginning to see a direct correlation between organized religions (or their misinterpretation to be precise) and the conflicts in the world.
Across the border from Kenya lies Somalia, this is a land with the dubious distinction of being one in which the study of a government of anarchy could be done practically, I recognize there’s a supposed central government in the name of the Transitional Federal Government, but anyone familiar with the chaotic political imbroglio that is the horn of Africa should know that the lame duck President of the TFG is nothing more than the mayor of a town; a besieged town.
The persons with the real say in most of Somalia are the dreaded “Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen” which loosely translates into Movement of Warrior Youth. Recent intelligence reports point to this group, commonly referred to as Al-Shabbab, as being in control of most of southern and central Somalia including the capital of Mogadishu, this in spite of the group being estimated at a paltry 4,000 to 7,000 militants.
Initially Al-Shabaab began as an off-shoot of the Islamic Courts Union which had been forcefully removed from power by the Ethiopian army, but it is an understatement to say it has morphed into an almost unrecognizable fundamentalist group, both imposing a draconian interpretation of Islamic law and waging what it calls a war against “enemies of Islam”. It has even been constantly attacking food aid organizations trying to alleviate the suffering of close to 4 million Somali IDPs, killing over 40 relief workers between 2008 and 2010.
Some of the bizarre and manifestly barbaric edicts and actions of this group include:
• A declaration of war of the United Nations and Non Governmental Organizations withing Somalia
• The stoning to death of a 13 year old girl accused of adultery, the execution was done while she was buried up to her neck in the pitch of a soccer stadium in Kismayo packed with spectators, it later emerged she had actually been gang raped.
• Recently, in the coastal town of Merca, Al-Shabaab decreed that gold and silver dental fillings were un-Islamic, and dispatched patrols to yank them out of people's mouths using crude instruments
• In late 2009 they began the public whipping of women for wearing bras which they claimed violated Islam as they are 'deceptive'. Gunmen were sent into the streets of Mogadishu to round up any women who appear to have firm busts for inspection to see if the firmness is natural, or if it is the result of wearing a bra. If found wearing a bra, they were ordered to remove it and shake their breasts after receiving a whipping from masked men
• The group has also banned the ringing of school bells as un-Islamic. Bell ringing is, in the words of Sheik Farah Kalar, "a sign of the Christian churches”.
• Musical ringtones are not allowed on mobile phones
• Watching sports, such as the World cup, is forbidden and two Somali men caught watching the World cup in June 2010 paid for it with their lives.
On 11th July 2010, Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for bombings in Kampala, Uganda which killed 74 people, this is especially unsettling when it is noted that as recently as 7th February 2010 the militant group declared a jihad on Kenya over what were unsubstantiated claims that Kenya was training Somali troops.
How prepared Kenya’s, or indeed our ally, Ethiopia’s, governments are regarding preventing any such threat is to most a matter of conjecture, all I can hope for is that, considering the global phenomenon of a slide towards home-grown militants, the large Kenyan population with Somali roots and who are mostly moderate will stand with our intelligence in helping put paid to the match of this extremists who have no regard for human life, including their own.
I’m not a Muslim but my research into the one religion that is a way of life and from the analysis of reading Muslim scholars it’s clear that there’s no place for wanton violence or mass murder by suicide of fellow human beings, for in Islam:
Suicide is forbidden. "O ye who believe!... [do not] kill yourselves, for truly Allah has been to you Most Merciful. If any do that in rancour and injustice, soon shall We cast him into the Fire..." (Qur'an 4:29-30).
The taking of life is allowed only by way of justice (i.e. the death penalty for murder), but even then, forgiveness is better. "Nor take life - which Allah has made sacred - except for just cause..." (17:33).
In pre-Islamic Arabia, retaliation and mass murder was commonplace. If someone was killed, the victim's tribe would retaliate against the murderer's entire tribe. This practice was directly forbidden in the Qur'an (2:178-179). Following this statement of law, the Qur'an says, "After this, whoever exceeds the limits shall be in grave chastisement" (2:178). No matter what wrong we perceive as being done against us, we may not lash out against an entire population of people.

The rules have been bended but the game remains the same

In the past brawn ruled the earth, brute strength determined who got to sow his oats and whose bloodline ended with him, it would even seem the more brutish a man was, the better!
In the dark ages Conan the barbarian had a field day with the ladies while lesser endowed mortals could only hope to pick up the dregs. Question is; has anything changed really? I mean maybe we don't have Conan swinging his sword and chopping off some poor fellows head or running after a buck and felling it single handedly to impress the ladies, but he is right here, he is the guy running your sputtering Vitz of the road with his unnerving Hummer, he is here dazzling the ladies with designer suits while you dress in cheap generic suits from Tuskys; you buy her kingfisher but he buys her real vintage wine.
Conan is here, he never left, and despite all the new age claims and all the loud talking from the fifty fifty brigade, he is going nowhere. If in the dark ages the strongest man attracted the ladies who were banking on his potential to provide food and protect offspring, then today the interpretation of strongest might have become modified but still the strongest man, armed with money and power, struts the land leaving broken hearts and bulging tummies in his wake.

Chivalry’s place in a world of equality

Is chivalry relevant in an age where technology and a self-centred mentality has got everyone wrapped up in their own small cocoon in which polite actions towards people of different sex are often treated with suspicion of being accompanied by ill intent or as groundwork for looming underhanded advances.
Much can be said of the privilege of living in this interesting times, what with technology moving in leaps and bounds leading to advances that have eased life for a lot of today’s men freeing them to pursue their passions without the nagging bother of a life preoccupied with a struggle to live at subsistence level; an engagement that stared the pre-locomotive man in the face every single day. Welcome to the age of convenience, where everything is just an impersonal button away, where words like lady and gentleman have almost no import other than to distinguish between genders and where chivalry is fast becoming a concept as alien as the unwieldy garb of the Victorian era.
There is no doubt that, despite the ease with which today we can move about and reach out, modernism has taken a certain edge off the human touch and unspoken principles that have bound together and informed generations past. We talk but we don’t communicate, we hear but we don’t listen, we touch but we don’t feel, we fear but we don’t respect, we know but we don’t understand and worse, chauvinists, hidden under politically correct tags, have distorted the whole equality debate the consequences being men are at a loss as to whether to open doors and pull back chairs for women; why they should have equal opportunity at work yet in times of mortal danger be compelled to allow ladies to scamper to safety first; why say equality is a reality and still be expected to regularly make concessions based on sex. So what place then for chivalrous action in a world of gender activism?
Nowadays it is not uncommon to see otherwise respectful strapping males defiantly occupy the last chair in a waiting room in which ladies are standing, it is equally not surprising to have attempts at chivalry, such as courteously offering to open a jammed can, being treated with hostility and viewed as nothing more than condescending macho display. Chivalry as a concept came about in the Middle Ages to combat the attitudes of brutality, ignorance and prejudice that were prevailing at the time, it meant embodiment of the characteristics of knighthood such as being courteous to women and showing gallantry. A lot has since changed and just considering that the sentiments which modern career women relate to are the kind you find in lyrics such as Wahu’s Sitishiki or Destiny's Child Independent Women, and with women going about life totally convinced and actively deciding they can live without men, it's an understatement to say it has become increasingly hard for the regular guy to realize that ladies, at least most of them, do still want to be treated like princesses.
For sure the average man is not given to too much analysis on the emotional dynamics that govern his partner’s thinking, this is tricky uncharted territory that most men sail purely by guesswork and instinct, it is for this reason that you can’t really blame such a man for concluding that all women want is to be acknowledged and treated as strong, independent people, who do not need to be patronized by men. As men we come face to face with a troubling double standard knowing that women would like to be swept off their feet, that they need and expect the man to make the first move, but yet in the same breath, they harp on the fact that they are strong and couldn’t be bothered with being single for the rest of their natural lives. Women have to appreciate that it is hard for most men to understand that actually women would like to be treated well and to be placed up on a pedestal, yet this treatment does not and shouldn’t lessen their strength or independence, but in all honesty it’s the very same women who have the onus to show us that they want this treatment.
It is a largely unstated belief among a lot of men that chivalry still has a place in modern society; unfortunately many get frustrated when attempts at being courteous go unnoticed, unappreciated or even condemned by women. We have scenarios such as being with a woman who pauses so that the man can walk ahead of her and hold the door open for her, then you have the gentleman who of his own volition goes ahead to open the door for his date, only to have his date shout at him that she can open doors without his help.
Are we even sure women want men to be chivalrous to begin with? to be chivalrous on not; that’s the question that has men squarely on the horns of a dilemma.