Police chief of Basra says group calling itself “Commanding the Good and Forbidding what is Prohibited” has recently killed 50 women in the southern port
December 27, 2007 6:32 am BasraSummary in English by Juan Cole, December 27, 2007
Sawt al-Iraq reports in Arabic that Abd al-Jalil Khalaf, the police chief of Basra, told the al-Arabiya satellite news channel on Wednesday that a shadowy group calling itself “Commanding the Good and Forbidding what is Prohibited” has recently killed 50 women in the southern port. It is probably a puritanical Shiite group, and it says it objects to make-up (tabarruj or the wanton display of oneself in public). The women killed have been for the most part Muslims (both Sunni and Shiite), though two were Christians.