(AFP File Photo)
Dar Al-Ifta said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has violated “all of the provisions and principles of Islam on the treatment of women during wars”.
An observatory on takfiri and anomalous fatwas (religious edicts) in Dar Al-Ifta, the official institution responsible for issuing religious edicts in Egypt, detailed violations against women in ISIS in a report released Sunday.
The report stated that ISIS “has killed and enslaved women”, turning women into “sex slaves that are sold to the highest bidder”.
The report added however, that ISIS is “unusual” when it comes to the role of women in takfiri, terrorist organisations, since it has intentionally changed the image on the magnitude of violence committed against women within these organisations to that of violence committed by women, in a sharp contrast.
ISIS “has deliberately recruited women from the first moment of its appearance”, the report said, adding that ISIS has created several battalions, in which women are exploited, either as fighters or as “electronic militias” that aim to attract more women into the organisation.
“The ISIS woman carries out arrests and torture against women who do not follow the rules of the organisation”, the report added.
One such battalion is the Al-Khansa battalion, which an International Business Times report said carries out several tasks including, “street patrols and public floggings for Sharia (Islamic law) crimes”.
The report said the Al-Khansa battalion is proof of the transformation ISIS is creating by giving women more executive roles, which “represents a magnet that attracts women to the group”, the report suggested.
ISIS launched the Al-Zawra Institution to “prepare women for wars and bearing arms”, and to “train them in media work, to attract as many women as possible to the organisation”. The media materials produced by the Al-Zawra Institution include instructions for women on how they can support jihad and their role in supporting male jihadi fighters.
“This is considered the first time that a takfiri, terrorist organisation based on violence and killing provides information related to women,” the report stated.
The report stressed that the “violations” that ISIS commits against women have nothing to do with religion and are an “exploitation of women in the name of Islam”.
ISIS currently controls large areas in Iraq and Syria, and is engaged in violent battles with Syrian government forces, Syrian opposition groups, Kurdish peshmerga from Iraq, as well as the Iraqi military and Iran-backed militias. A US-led international coalition is also carrying out a bombing campaign against the organisation in both Syria and Iraq.
ISIS espouses a radical takfiri ideology and claims to have re-established the Islamic caliphate after rebranding itself over the summer as the “Islamic State”.
