ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan – A year after it conquered Mosul, the radical Islamic State still retains an iron grip on the lives of the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq’s second city. The information that leaks out of the city paints a harrowing picture of executions, enforced taxation, informers, lack of services, and ever-stricter applications of the group’s hard-line interpretation of Islamic law. For example, local people say the ultra-conservative group continues to tighten its regulations on women´s clothing and men’s beards. After the niqaab, which covers nose and mouth, the veil was made obligatory for women to cover their whole face. Billboards have recently been erected that proclaim even tighter rules, with the picture of a wide garment covering the woman from head to toe. Even hands must to be covered in the scorching summer heat of northern Iraq. These changing regulations can be seen as symbolic of the evolution of life under ISIS. The group not only imposed strict Sharia, the Islamic law, on this already mostly conservative city, but it stifled most personal freedoms as well. Communication with the outside world became virtually impossible when the mobile telephone network was disconnected. The landline that was reinstalled has no connection with the outside. Even so, people find ways to send messages outside, via social media applications, or they drive to the city’s outskirts to connect to a distant mobile network. For that reason, and because of the fear ISIS imposed, most information that reaches the outside is second hand. For example, a 29-year old young man in Erbil communicates with a cousin still living in Mosul. The cousin cannot leave his house since the latest ruling that men under 45 years of age should have beards and long hair. Shaving is prohibited and only older men can trim their beards. Those who are caught disobeying are fined $85 and sent to prison for a week. Getting caught a second consecutive time leads to 40 lashes and 30 days in detention. The ban on smoking has also been tightened. If ISIS-guards find the smell of tobacco on someone’s hands, his two fingers used for holding the cigarette will be broken, the cousin reported. At the second occurrence, the fingers are amputated, just like the hands of any thief who ignores a first warning. The people are daily reminded of who is in charge of their city. As Mosul Eye, a blogger reporting anonymously from inside the city, says civilians must pay $1.70 per day for services – even though there hardly is electricity nor water - plus a monthly tax of $21. The cousin has knowledge of business men who are forced to pay 5 percent of their daily sales and of taxi drivers having to pay $4.50 at the start of every working day. The taxes make up an important part of the income of ISIS, explaining why ISIS is making it almost impossible for civilians to leave town. Traveling is only allowed in urgent situations. If the person does not return within 15 days, ISIS takes their home and car. Mosul Eye reported one of the ISIS fighters saying: “Where do we get money if we let the civilians leave the city?” ISIS fighters and officials have more freedom. They are given the best houses, homes that once belonged to military officers and civil servants. The group has given the houses of Christians who fled the city to foreign fighters. Some of those houses are used to store explosives, and when the coalition planes bombed one recently, a number of civilians died. People who lived near these storage places decided to urgently move away. There are some reports of limited resistance: snipers firing at ISIS officials, their houses being set alight. To prevent informers from sending details of possible targets to the coalition forces, ISIS recently started to register all Internet users. Civilians have secretly been helping the Yezidi girls, most kept by fighters as slaves, to escape. The local residents have hidden them and helped them pass ISIS checkpoints. Some have even bought these girls from the fighters to set them free. Many people are far too scared, however, knowing that ISIS has many informers among the population and staying home for fear of the bloody revenge of the group. Every Friday executions take place, according to residents. Those killed include of spies, people who spoke out against ISIS or were found guilty of blasphemy or witchcraft. Homosexuals have been thrown off buildings and adulterers stoned. Medical doctors who refused to go to the frontline to care for the wounded were killed, so were male colleagues who treated female patients. Civilians are expected to watch these executions. They are also ordered to take to the streets during the military parades ISIS holds to celebrate its military strength. People complain but still they go, terrified of the violent radicals that turned their city into a prison.
