"... clerics had begun enforcing their vision of Shari'a (law) on the region's female population - ordering families not to allow their daughters to attend the foreigners' schools on pain of death, ordering families to have "the cutting" carried out on all their daughters in accord with ancient tradition, ordering the wearing of scarves and veils as well as the traditional coverings to comport with THEIR ideas of what constituted proper modesty.
Perhaps the most bewildering of all was the recent ban on bras, seen as "deceptive" and therefore in violation of Islamic law. .... militia gangs had been rounding up women and inspecting them in the streets. Those found to be wearing a bra were publicly stripped, given twenty lashes and forced to shake their breasts in front of the militiamen ... (p.217)
"Women found to be wearing trousers could receive forty lashes .... after being stripped and shamed." (p. 217)
"Even worse was the enforcement of the cuttings. .. The cutting of a girl's genitals ... had long been sanctioned by Islamic culture and was common across Muslim Africa.... however, the cutting was not required by the holy Qur'an; ... it was an outgrowth of local cultures, something likely practiced here long before the Prophet's message had come." (p. 218)
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