The influential Somali Religious Council (SRC) has said that the national women’s basketball tournament, which starts today in Somalia, is “unIslamic”, the privately owned Jowhar website reports.



It is Somalia's first national female basketball competition, with teams from all the five regional administrations and the capital, Mogadishu taking part.



But SRC chairman, Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salat, is quoted as saying that the competition is against Islamic culture:



"We are warning against women's games, it is something that Islam does not allow. It is not good for men to watch women clad in sporting attire, culturally and religiously. It is a shame.



This can cause destruction and suffering"



The SRC is run by moderate clerics and preaches against the Islamist al-Shabab militant group which imposes strict rules on women's behaviour and dress codes in the areas it rules.



Earlier this year, the council criticised a bill on women’s rights, which the UN-backed government took on board, making amendments.



The first basketball game today starts in the north-eastern town of Garowe, with a match between Hirshabelle and Mogadishu



