Stations immediately complied, fearful that disc jockeys would face the harsh punishment militants mete out here: amputations and stonings. The edict is the latest unpopular order from the Islamists, who also have banned bras, musical ringtones and movies.
More than a dozen radio stations complied with the order by the militant group Hizbul Islam, the National Union of Somali Journalists said.
"Journalists working in these stations have in the past witnessed broad daylight assassination of their colleagues and have now been signaled that they would follow the same fate if they do not obey these oppressive orders," said the union's secretary-general, Omar Faruk Osman.
Somalia has a tradition of music and most residents greeted the ban with dismay. Rock, rap and love songs from the U.S., Europe and Africa could be heard on Somali stations before the ban.
"Now I think we are going to be forced to hear only the horrific sounds of the gunfire and the explosions," said Khadiya Omar,
a 22-year-old Mogadishu resident who called music a "tranquilizer" to help him forget life's troubles.
Read remainder here
This is a sad commentary on what insane "laws" us humans allow ourselves to make and to follow.
Freedom must seem worlds away to them. I am all the more grateful for mine.
<3
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