Refugee Story: Indignity, Danger for Women in IS-Held Mosul

[TomSea]

Refugee Story: Indignity, Danger for Women in IS-Held Mosul

Women flee Islamic State territory fully veiled but many quickly remove the veils, revealing their faces in public for the first time in two and a half years in Khazir, Kurdish Iraq on Dec. 7, 2016. (Photo: H.Murdock / VOA)

HASSAN SHAM, KURDISH IRAQ —

Women who have escaped Mosul, Iraq, where military forces have been battling Islamic State fighters, say amid the terror and suffering imposed on them by IS rule are more subtle, but deeply disturbing abuses.

It was worth risking their lives, they say, to escape a world where strange men hurl insults and punishments at them for even the slightest infraction of IS 'rules.'

An ordinary shopping trip, for example, could be dangerous, says Issra, a 30-year-old mother of two from Mosul.

“I was dressed according to their laws in all black,” she said, describing a day at her local bazaar several months back, before snipers and mortar fire kept everyone inside. “I was wearing a veil, gloves and my feet were covered.”

An IS militant approached her outside a shop and ordered her to put on a second veil, so her eyes — the only part of her visible — also were covered. Then, under the loose-fitting black robes covering her from head to toe, the militant noticed the outline of trousers, forbidden to women even if they are unseen.

Continued At: http://www.voanews.com/a/indignity-and-danger-for-women-in-islamic-state-held-mosul/3630024.html