Al-Khansaa Brigade

The Al-Khansaa Brigade (Arabic: لواء الخنساء) was an all-women police or religious enforcement unit of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), operating in its de facto capitals of Raqqa and Mosul.^[4]

Al-Khansaa Brigade
لواء الخنساء
Official emblem of the Al-Khansaa Media Brigade
Leaders	Fatiha el-Mejjati[1][2]
Dates of operation	February 2014[3]– Present (Largely inactive since 2019)
Active regions	Islamic State
Size	60[3] (2014)
Part of	Islamic State

History

Formed in 2014 and initially consisting of around sixty women, the brigade was used to enforce Sharia law, mainly in IS-occupied Raqqa and Mosul, but also in refugee camps as IS territory collapsed.^[5] The group was probably named after Al-Khansa, a female Arabic poet from the earliest days of Islam.^[6] It was unique in the Muslim world as, in other regimes with similar systems of religious police (such as Saudi Arabia), only men are permitted to enforce hisbah among women.^[7]

After initially being set up to enable men disguised as women to be identified through searches at checkpoints, the group's role was expanded to police and punish women according to IS regulations, with the size of the group expanding to include 1000 women.^[8][9] An IS official, Abu Ahmad, said in 2014, "We have established the brigade to raise awareness of our religion among women, and to punish women who do not abide by the law."^[10] The outfit has also been called IS's 'moral police'.^[7][9]

Women who went out without a male chaperone or were not fully covered in public were subject to arrests and beatings by Al-Khansaa,^[7] using whips and metal sticks.^[11] An example of crimes punished and sentences administered by Al-Khansaa were those for two women in Raqqa in 2015, who received 20 lashes for wearing form-fitting abayas, five for wearing makeup underneath their abayas, and another five for "not being meek enough when detained".^[12]

The brigade had its own facilities to enforce sex segregation.^[7][13] Its members were aged between 18 and 25, receiving a monthly salary of LS 25,000.^[14] According to defectors interviewed by Sky News, Al-Khansaa Brigade included many foreign women, and recruits were "trained for a month". Their pay is estimated to be "between £70 and £100 [ STG ] per month". According to one source hostile to IS, women were not allowed to drive cars or carry weapons, but women in the Al-Khansaa Brigade "can do both".^[4]

In April 2017 the group released a recruitment video for female hackers claiming to have hacked over 100 social media accounts over the previous month.^[15] According to Iraqi News, in 2017 Al-Khansaa members were used as snipers to defend IS-held Mosul against assaults by Iraq's security forces.^[16] Though IS has not held any territory since 2019, there have been reports of the group's members infiltrating refugee camps in Iraq, with some of these reports having come as late as 2021.^[9][17]

Activities

The Brigade has been known for their brutal violence against women. They oversee brothels of enslaved Yazidi women and search women at checkpoints.^[18] A former member of the brigade stated that they would give 60 lashes to women who attempted to escape, and 40 to women who wore high-heeled shoes or did not wear the abaya.^[19] Violaters were first warned, and they and their male guardians would be whipped after the second violation.^[20]

The Al-Khansaa Brigade is instrumental in disseminating IS propaganda and recruiting foreign militants,^[21][22][23] particularly from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.^[20] In September 2014^[update], it was estimated by The Independent that up to 60 British women had joined the brigade.^[24] Recruiters were known to use identity politics, particularly ethnic tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims, to lure "young women who feel oppressed as Sunni Muslims" towards IS.^[25]

See also

• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War
• Women in warfare and the military (2000–present)