That Story About "ISIS Ordering Female Genital Mutilation In Iraq" Is An Old Hoax
A United Nations representative has claimed the Islamic State has ordered all girls and women in and around Mosul, Iraq to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). The problem? It's a hoax!
By Sadho Ram — 25 Jul 2014, 02:20 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
On 24 July 2014, Al Arabiya, Daily Star(Lebanon), The Guardian and several others ran a story stating "ISIS had ordered the mandatory female genital mutilation (or FGM) of approximately 4 million women between the ages of 11 and 46 in Mosul, Iraq"
Screenshot of the story from English Al Arabiya site, one of the various ones which ran the story
Image via SAYS.comThe story began when a UN official named Jacqueline Badcock, told reporters of a new religious edict issued in ISIS' name
The edict — or fatwa — ordered all girls and women in the city of Mosul between the ages of 11 and 46 to undergo female genital mutilation, Badcock told reporters in a teleconference from Iraq. “This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed,” Badcock, who serves as the U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator in Iraq, said.
washingtonexaminer.com
“This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists,” she added. The result of such an order, she said, could be up to four million Iraqi girls and women in and around Iraq’s second largest city being forced to undergo the painful procedure. Aside from the initial suffering, the process often leads to a multitude of health problems “including severe bleeding, problems urinating, infections, infertility and increased risk of newborn deaths in childbirth.”
The story quickly began to go viral, racking up thousands of shares on social media. Soon thereafter, however, journalists with contacts in Iraq began reporting that the story didn't hold up.
My contacts in #Mosul have NOT heard that "Islamic State" ordered FGM for all females in their city http://t.co/kQFWKwGeLf
— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) July 24, 2014
Iraqi contacts say #Mosul story is fake. No evidence ISIS calling for #FGM to be carried out against girls and women #Iraq
— Shaista Aziz (@shaistaAziz) July 24, 2014
NPR's Cairo bureau chief also claimed that the story was false
#UN statement that #ISIS issued fatwa calling 4 FGM 4 girls is false residents of Mosul say includng a doctor, jourrnalist and tribal leader
— Leila Fadel (@LeilaFadel) July 24, 2014
Not long after a version of a document in Arabic, bearing the black logo that ISIS has adopted, began circulating on Twitter. The document is a hoax and the basis for the United Nations' claim.
As one analyst who looked at the document told the Independent, the issuing of such an edict would be a huge shift for ISIS, which has held territory in Syria for months without demanding that FGM take place.
independent.co.ukThe practice tends to be based more on culture, Shiraz Maher, a Senior Fellow at King’s College London, said and “not something jihadists have ever really taken up” or “spoken about.”
The BBC now looks to be backing off its earlier report. BBC was one of the first to report, whose source was Jacqueline Badcock.
Moreover, the decree is not only fake, it has typos and language mistakes and is signed by "The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant", a name the group no longer uses, instead referring to itself as the Islamic State
This claim about a fatwa that was reportedly issued in Mosul, now controlled by the Islamic State, that ordered female genital mutilation, otherwise known as female circumcision is not new, and it has been making rounds since 2013 from inside Syria. This 'fatwa' about female circumcisions for example, was first posted on Iranian media outlets, blogs and Facebook pages back in 2013. It was proven fake long ago.
justpaste.it
The traction that this story seemed to quickly gain is easy to understand given ISIS' previous actions in the territory it controls
Shakir Waheib, a senior member of the al-Qaida breakaway group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), left, next to a burning police vehicle in Iraq’s Anbar Province
Image via thinkprogress.orgAlong with reports of civilian executions, massacring Shiites, and enforcing a strict adherence to their interpretation of Islamic law, ISIS has even resurrected the practice of crucifixion in Syria. But for now it appears that female cutting is one atrocity that ISIS has yet to order.