Islamic State (Isis), the al-Qaida offshoot that seized large swathes of northern Iraq last month, has warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or risk severe punishment.
The Sunni insurgents, who have declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria and have threatened to march on Baghdad, also listed guidelines on how veils and clothes should be worn, part of a campaign to violently impose their radical brand of Islam.
"The conditions imposed on her clothes and grooming was only to end the pretext of debauchery resulting from grooming and overdressing," the group said in a statement.
[A COMMENT] Mental, truly mental.
[ANOTHER] Yeah, well we all think ISIS are nutters (except those young Britons who have gone to join them), but this obsession with 'dressing modestly' is, of course, part of mainstream Islam.
Reports on the Trojan Horse schools showed young British girls of about 6 or 7 all wearing trousers and tighly wrapped headscarves in a British state, supposedly non-faith, school.
And Islamic headscarves and 'modest' Islamic dress are a regular sight in many British inner city areas. It would be interesting to see some Guardian writers tackle the basic question of how free women can ever be and how equal in society if they are always forced to dress 'modestly' by a religion controlled by men?
Some Muslim women claim it's their choice to dress 'modestly' but with men making the rules, can it ever really be their free choice? [The Guardian] Read more
