Islamic State tightens control

‘Temporary marriage’ order means a man can marry any girl he fancies and divorce her for a new one, writes Patrick Cockburn

ON THE DAY Ibrahim fled his home city of Fallujah, crowds were gathering to witness the execution of two women who had refused to marry Islamic State militants. A 49-year-old Sunni Arab, he says he was shocked “because I knew that those women were Sunnis from the country neighbourhood of Fallujah”.

It was the vulnerability of his two daughters, aged 21 and 23, to “temporary marriage” with Islamic State commanders, fighters and militants that led Ibrahim (not his real name) to leave Fallujah two months ago for Baghdad 64km away and later to seek refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan.

He said the threat to his daughters was the culmination of friction between him and members of Islamic State who captured the Sunni Arab city with a population of 200 000 in January of 2014.

Ibrahim says Islamic State recently amended a “temporary marriage” order, extending it to civilians in peaceful areas and not just in war zones. Islamic State had previously enforced the “jihad marriage” Islamic State since it started expanding its rule in 2012. In an interview earlier this year, an Islamic State fighter who gave his name as Hamza, also from Fallujah, recalled speaking to Tunisian Muslim women who had made their way voluntarily to Islamic State as they supported its beliefs and aims, and who had undergone “temporary marriages” with Islamic State commanders.

The Tunisians would then be divorced after a week and would marry another commander. By way of contrast, captured women from the Yazidi sect were regarded by Islamic State as pagans without rights and were offered to fighters for sex.

“It was in the first week of December 2014 when they brought about 13 Yazidi girls to us,” Hamza says. “The commander tried to tempt us by saying that this is halaal (lawful) for you, a gift from Allah that we are allowed to satisfy ourselves without even marrying them because they are pagans.”

Hamza regarded this as rape and, together with fear that he would be asked

There will be a complete ban on unveiling, as well

as the wearing of tight trousers and cloaks

PICTURE: YAZEED KAMALDIEN NO LONGER SAFE: Young women from Kobane, Syria, have found refuge at a camp in Suruc, Turkey. Women in Islamic State-controlled areas are increasingly under threat as rules are changed to constrict them even further.