Via IB Times:
Women in Syria face whippings and even execution under a harsh regime being enforced by Islamist rebels, it has been claimed.
Rebels from the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (Isis) have imposed a harsh regime, flogging women who break a strict dress code, imposing a tax on Christians and banning any behaviour deemed immodest or sinful.
Isis drove Syrian rebels from the free Syrian Army and the Al-Nusra Front out of the city of Raqqa, in northern Syria about 99 miles east of Aleppo earlier this year, and began transforming what had been one of Syria’s more liberal cities into a hardline Islamist mini-state modelled on its own version of Sharia law.
One woman was allegedly sentenced to 20 lashes after an Isis “morality patrol” saw her holding hands with a male cousin. Another woman aged 19 was sentenced to 40 lashes after an Isis officer saw a picture of her on Facebook wearing a short-sleeved blouse, it has been claimed.
Everyone female aged 10 and over in Raqqa must cover themselves with the traditional abaya (the traditional cloak) and niqab (face covering), and Isis has decreed that no features should be displayed that are suggestive, vain or attention-seeking.
Women are also banned from talking loudly in the street, walking in public without a male chaperone (their father, brother or husband) and are not allowed to leave home after dark.