The end of the radical Islamist grip on Somalia has had many words written about it, but the images and sounds coming from the nightclubs of Mogadishu cement the reality of freedom for young Somalians. Playing music that would have been banned by the Union of Islamic Courts and showing dance moves that would have brought beatings or worse from the Islamist moral enforcers, Somalians danced in celebration and defiance:

There was not a hijab or niqab in sight as clubbers at the Global Dance Hall worked up a sweat to gangsta rap and Kenyan hip-hop. Instead, women shook their hair and stole glances at the men lining the wall.

Quite what Mogadishu’s Union of Islamic Courts would have made of the occasional flash of ankle beneath the long dresses is anyone’s guess. But no one cared as they celebrated their new freedom.

For six months this liberal northern corner of Somalia’s capital had been under the rule of one of the city’s most conservative Sharia courts. Cinemas were shut and music had to be played discreetly. “Even booty [flirting] was banned,” said Suad, 20, giggling before she rushed back to the dancefloor. Little more than a week ago the city was under attack from Ethiopian warplanes. Today Mogadishu is in the hands of the country’s two-year-old interim Government. As their Prime Minister announced the end of engagements, the young celebrated their freedom.

“People were scared, isolated before,” said Jamilla, a human-rights worker. “I would not be able to speak to you as a woman to a man.”

Not all is peaceful yet in the Somalian capital. Armed men in trucks still make occasional appearances, reminding Mogadishu residents that a few remnants of the Islamists may remain in the city. The Ethiopian Army sits at critical parts of the city, and a bad move on their part could result in a flash of violence that could easily get out of hand. The new transitional government has to establish its authority and its ability to keep order before Somalians can believe that 15 years of civil war, chaos, and radical Islamist tyranny have come to an end.

However, their joy at liberation cannot be easily contained, either. It took less than a fortnight after the Islamists fled Mogadishu for the inhabitants to exercise their new-found freedoms. They do not appear to want a return to chaos, but instead want the ability to think and act for themselves. Somalians, at least, do not think that their options have to be limited to chaos or tyranny.

We saw something similar when the Taliban had to flee Kabul and most of Afghanistan. The supposed order of the radical Islamists got exposed for the tyranny and oppression that it was, as women felt free to remove the burqas and men shaved their beards. Music and dancing, the primal expressions of joy and freedom of human beings since Antiquity, returned to a people starved of all of that.

We can question where Somalia will go next, and who will take power in a vacuum, should one be left for too long. We cannot dispute the joy that Somalians have demonstrated at their liberation from the oppression of radical Islam, nor should we forget it.

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