Islamic State group reportedly bans burqas
The Islamic State group reportedly has banned women in its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul from wearing face-covering burqas.
According to The Express and the Al Alam News Network, the extremist group's leadership decided to implement the policy following attacks on Islamic State commanders by women wearing burqas and niqabs in recent months.
The Express notes that the group's morality police previously required women to wear the conservative burqa within its territory.
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Burqas are now banned in security centers in Mosul, in northern Iraq, though women reportedly still will be required to cover themselves completely when out in public, and will have to use gloves and gauze to cover their eyes when in security centers.
Mosul is considered a linchpin of the Islamic State group's efforts to hold on to its diminishing territory. The group has lost 50 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq, and 20 percent of its former land in Syria.
The group is also considered on the verge of losing its Libyan stronghold, Sirte.
"My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall," President Barack Obama said in April.
