Dress-code gangs beat women
2003-10-31 12:55
Dar es Salaam - Police in Tanzania's Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar are hunting for a gang who beat up and harass women deemed to be wearing un-Islamic clothes, a report said Friday.
"The gang, calling itself "lions of God," on Thursday apprehended in the streets and caned a girl, Roida Katembo, for wearing a short dress, without a head veil," police commander George Kizuguto told state-owned Radio Tanzania.
On Tuesday, tourist hotel employee Neema Mwaipopo, 25, was severely beaten for wearing a mini-skirt while on her way to work, he added.
Police have intensified patrols on the island following several reports that since the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, gangs were harassing women not wearing the Islamic attire, he said.
The semi-autonomous twin islands of Zanzibar and Pemba are predominantly Muslim and are a major resort for Western tourists.
Zanzibar joined mainland Tanganyika in April 1964, three months after a revolution that overthrew the Sultan of Oman, to form the Federal Republic of Tanzania.
The mainland population of the east African state is 55 percent Christian and 45 percent Muslim.