Somalia

Fabienne Doucet is haunted by the stories of the women and children she has met who are still living in camps one year after an earthquake reduced the island nation of Haiti to rubble.

Lafole — Fighters loyal to Al shabaab movement on Sunday detained 15 Somali women whom are accused of violating the movement's strict orders on women.

A witness has told Shabelle Radio that the apprehended are said to have worn light clothes whose bodies could be easily seen.

NAIROBI, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Women living in areas controlled by Somalia's Islamists say they are increasingly the target of more draconian rules meted out by the rebels bent on enforcing their ideologies.

Militants in a town in war-torn southern Somalia have imposed an unthinkably harsh restriction on the women who live there by refusing to allow them to work, leaving many families destitute.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Al-Qaida-linked militants in war-torn southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public, residents said Saturday. People who break the rules could be imprisoned, whipped or even executed.

Mogadishu — Al shabaab movement continued imposing their strict orders on Somali women in IDPs camps just out side of Mogadishu.

Kismayo — Al shabaab fighters in Kismayo town, the regional capital of Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia on Tuesday banned Somali women from working completely.

Residents said the women in the region face countless problems from Al shabaab administration in Jubba regions.

NAIROBI, 10 January 2011 (IRIN) - At 75, Aagan Mahamud is at an age when, in Somali culture, her children should be taking care of her. Instead, Mahamud is looking after six grandchildren.

Every morning, she roasts peanuts for sale at the roadside. Sometimes she washes clothes to earn enough to provide for the children.

In many of the conflicts of the last decades – from Afghanistan to Somalia, from the Balkans to the Democratic Republic of the Congo – violence against women has reached horrific proportions and constitutes the most difficult challenge confronting the relief community.

Mogadishu — Fighters loyal to Al shabaab, which declared its allegiance to Al Qaeda, have imposed strict orders on Somali women in Afgoye corridor, where hundreds of thousands displaced by Mogadishu's protracted violence live, witnesses said on Sunday.