Fundamentalists Assail Egyptian Belly Dancers

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.