MALI: Malian Women Celebrate

On the day the French came and the Islamists left, Hawi Traore folded up her veil and tied on a vibrantly colored wraparound dress. On the next day, she wore heels. On the day after, she got her hair braided and slipped on sparkly earrings.

And finally, on Thursday, the 12-year-old girl turned the music on her cellphone back on and danced triumphantly in the streets, celebrating freedom from the draconian rules imposed by al-Qaida-linked militants on this desert capital for much of the past year.

Four days since French commandos parachuted onto the sand just north of Tombouctou and liberated the storied city from the Islamists, there is a growing sense of freedom — particularly among women. Their jubilation emphasizes one aspect of the confrontation with Islamists here that is favorable toward the West: Extreme Islam is foreign to the people of this land, whose variety of religion is much milder and more liberal toward women.

The difference is even starker in Tombouctou, despite its reputation as an ancient city at the end of the Earth. Until recently, the women of Tombouctou have led a relatively modern existence, where they were not required to be covered and could socialize with men.

That changed last year, when Islamic extremists seized control of the northern half of Mali after a military coup destabilized the country.

When they first arrived, Hawi, a tall, fast-talking, sassy preteen girl, was just learning how to put on makeup. She learned the hard way to wear the toungou, the word for veil in the Songhai language. Her slender arm still bears the scar left by the whip of the Islamic police, her punishment for not properly covering up.

Her once-free life became increasingly restricted, as did that of her sisters and friends.

The Islamists showed no mercy, beating everyone from pregnant women to grandmothers to 9-year-old girls who weren't fully covered. Even talking to a brother on the front stoop of a woman's own home could get her in trouble.

Smoking, drinking and music were banned. So was playing soccer. The worst punishment was reserved for love outside the rules, and an unmarried couple who had two children out of wedlock were stoned to death in one northern Malian town.

The French intervened to oust the Islamists from power in northern Mali on Jan. 11, and rapidly forced their retreat from the major cities in less than three weeks. The Islamists vanished into the desert, leaving obstacles for the French.