Women Under ISIS: Syrian Woman Risks Life To Take Video
It is hard to imagine what it’s like for women to live under ISIS rule. A new video taken by a very brave Syrian woman gives the rest of the world a taste of what goes on in the city of Raqqa, a hot bed for militants.
Just because an ISIS militant believes a woman is showing too much skin, even if she’s wearing the traditional niqab — which covers everything except the eyes — she could be stopped while walking down the street. Thanks to this fearless woman, who had a hidden camera while walking the streets of the Syrian city, we see what happens when she is called out for revealing too much.
The unidentified Syrian woman took the video — commissioned by the network France 2 — which was posted to YouTube earlier this week. In it we take a look at what life under ISIS is like for women, who are forced to walk around covered head-to-toe if they want to go out in public.
Raqqa fell under the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) control 18 months ago and this is the first time anyone in the western world has an inside look, as the woman walks around the Syrian city taking a video of the unsuspecting militants and other women. The eerie video begins with a shaky image of the streets of what it said to be Raqqa.
“It is a woman that is secretly filming (this footage) while risking her life,” states a quote appears on the video, while the camera pans around.
“While dressed in a black niqab that is mandatory to wear, she strolls in the city of Raqqa, where the jihadists are imposing their laws since last March.”
The images on the video show activity like that one would find in any bustling city, however, if you look closely, many of the ISIS fighters walking on the streets are carrying machine guns. The militants are shown patrolling the streets in civilian clothes and they don’t wear any kind of uniform.
The video also shows how a woman, dressed in black, carries an Ak-47 while taking her child to the playground. It is unclear whether this is for her own protection or she is aligned with ISIS.
Suddenly, the woman taking the video, gets stopped by an ISIS jihadists, who approaches her in a car. Fortunately, the man is only questioning her for revealing too much of her face and carries on his way, without further incident. The woman agrees to his demands and apologizes.
The woman taking the video is able to infiltrate a tent in which other Syrian women are using social media. A woman, presumably talking to her mother, tells her she is not leaving the ISIS controlled city and going back to France. According to the report, approximately 150-French women are now living with ISIS militants in northern Syria, after traveling there to join their cause.
This week, President Obama authorized airstrikes on Raqqa — considered the jihadists base — and other cities controlled by ISIS militants, in an effort to stop the brutal group, who is responsible for beheading two American journalists and a British man, who was doing humanitarian work in Syria when he was taken captive.
[Image via Twitter]
