Mosul, Dec 13: Even with the Iraqi and Syrian army taking strong measures and heavy military presence to recapture ISIS strong holds, the regime of hardliner ISIS are having their way in their strongholds, one of them being Mosul where women are slowly being forced to stay inside their houses and not being encouraged to step out. 

The move was better understood when recently the IS introduced a new dress code for women wherein they have been instructed to cover not just their hands, feet, arms etc but now also their ‘eyes’. Showing them is now considered a serious enough offence to demand both a fine as well as whipping. 

The dress code has been progressively introduced wherein first a hiab along with full body burkha became a must and later gloves along with socks became a norm. Recently the covering of the eyes was declared by the terrorists who went door to door distributing the ‘bill of the city’ wherein all women have been commanded to stay inside their houses and only in dire emergency should they step out with full documentation upon their person. 

Most women reported to international media in private and on terms on anonymity that they feel scared to lift up the veil from their eyes in public as tripping or falling down of women is also a punishable offence under the IS regime. 

In one such example a young woman described how she was reprimanded by the IS solders who spotted a hole in her socks where a part of her ankle skin was showing and asked that her husband come to the courts to explain why she was not dressed properly. In another instance a woman narrated how she removed her gloves to write but was immediately punished with lashings for baring her full writing hand. 

The recent dictates are clearly aimed at restricting women to the cloistered lives inside their own houses and no socialising even with their neighbours is being  permitted without the companionship of a male member of the family. 

For most women the changes are not some thing they are comfortable with but the prospect of being jailed or whipped or even worse taken in as a slave wife for the IS men is a deterrent enough to make them adapt to all the changes put in front of them. For most the wait is long before their cities are liberated by the armies and the IS rule is termitted for good.