Fundamentalists Assail Egyptian Belly Dancers
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CAIRO — Muslim fundamentalists are waging a campaign of intimidation against Egyptian belly dancers, accusing them of violating the Islamic principle barring women from exposing themselves to anyone but their husbands.
The campaign is part of a long-running struggle between fundamentalists, who favor a return to Islamic values, and the more secular administration of President Hosni Mubarak.
“Our group is fighting vice by breaking up weddings where . . . belly dancers perform,” Mahmoud Khodari, a 30-year-old Muslim fundamentalist leader, told the Egyptian daily newspaper Gomhuria.
Several hundred Egyptian, Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese dancers still perform the age-old art in Cairo nightclubs. But the government, bowing to religious pressure, has agreed to bar belly dancing from television.
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