Mali: Ruling Islamists Publicly Lash Teen Girl 60 Times for Speaking to Men on the Street in Timbuktu

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images.

Radical Islamists in Timbuktu convicted a teenaged girl of speaking to men on the street. She was punished with 60 lashes in public.

The girl, who is just 15-years-old, was allegedly caught "standing alongside men by the Islamists of Ansar Dine who now run Timbuktu," the Associated Press reports.

"The Islamists charged that the girl was warned five times by Islamist police but she continued to speak to men in the street. After the hearing, the Islamists gave 60 lashes to the girl. The population did not turn out in large numbers to attend this flogging," said Ousmane Maiga, a Timbuktu resident contacted by phone from Bamako.

The public lashing occurred at roughly 11 a.m. local time in front of the new headquarters of the Islamic police in downtown Timbuktu, ironically next to "Independence Square."