The feared Islamic insurgents have opened an office where single women can register to marry fighters from the extremist organization, according to unconfirmed reports.
The al-Qaeda linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has opened an office where single women and widows can register to marry fighters of the militant organization, a Syria monitoring agency told Reuters on Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is a UK-based agency that sources its reports from a network of informants on the ground. This report has not yet been verified, Reuters said.
AP Photo/Militant Website, File
The "marriage bureau" in the northern Syrian town of al-Bab records the names and addresses of the women so ISIS fighters can approach their families and ask for their hand in marriage, the Syrian Observatory said.
According to residents of the town, the office offers "Single women and widows who would like to marry IS fighters" to leave their names and addresses for militants to "come knocking at their door and officially ask for marriage," reported Agence France-Presse, citing the Syrian Observatory.
Stringer/Iraq / Reuters
According to previous reports, militants have often sought wives or forced women to marry them in areas controlled by ISIS.
The Observatory's director, Rami Abdurrahman, told Reuters that he had never heard of the group setting up a formal bureau to register potential wives for its fighters until now.
According to BuzzFeed's report from Baghdad, the fear of sexual violence by ISIS militants ran high in Iraq after the extremist militants marched through the country in June.
Stringer / Reuters
ISIS has imposed severe restrictions on women's personal freedoms in the Raqqa province of Syria, including the order that all women must wear the naqab or the face veil in public at all times.
Those who don't comply are punished by ISIS "in accordance with sharia", or Islamic, law.
Stringer / Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment