Islamic State jihadists open ‘marriage bureau’

This article is more than 12 months old

Jul 30, 2014 06:08 pm

Want to marry an Islamic State fighter? Visit the jihadist group’s "marriage bureau".

The radical Al Qaeda offshoot has opened an office in Al-Bab, a town in the Aleppo province of northern Syria, for "single women and widows who would like to marry IS fighters", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based monitoring group, citing residents, said interested parties were being asked to provide their names and addresses, “and IS fighters will come knocking at their door and officially ask for marriage”.

Militant Islamist fighters waving flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province.

The IS, formally known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), controls large swathes of northern and eastern Syria, the Iraq-Syria border, and parts of northern and western Iraq.

The group proclaimed a "caliphate" last month straddling the two neighbouring Arab states.

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Honeymooning in the IS

The IS has also expanded into tourism, taking jihadists on honeymoons and civilians to visit other parts of its caliphate.

Running twice-weekly tours from Syria’s Raqa to Iraq’s Anbar, IS buses fly the group’s black flag and play jihadist songs throughout the journey.

The fighters holding a parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic caliphate.

The IS has set strict limits on women’s rights in areas it controls.

A group statement issued last week said women in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which the rebels captured in June, had been warned to wear full-face veils or risk severe punishment.

The statement also listed guidelines on how veils and clothes should be worn, part of group’s campaign to forcibly impose their radical brand of Islam.