MYTILENE, Greece — Among the tens of thousands fleeing war and despair in the Middle East, one group feels a special relief in reaching Europe: those who have escaped areas ruled by Islamic State extremists and the harsh scrutiny of their religious police.
These refugees tell of how a Western-style haircut, a pair of jeans or a simple interaction with the opposite sex can lead to punishment by the Hisba, the branch of enforcers carrying out a brutal interpretation of Islamic Shariah law.
More than 175,000 Syrians and nearly 10,000 Iraqis have made the dangerous sea journey to Greece this year, part of a massive influx fueled in part by Syria’s civil war, now in its fifth year. Many are fleeing the onslaught from President Bashar Assad’s military against opposition-held cities, particularly the terror and often random destruction inflicted by its barrel bombs.
A DIFFERENT TYPE OF FEAR
But some are trying to escape a different type of fear that took hold in the ruined landscape of the Islamic State’s self-declared “caliphate” across parts of Syria and Iraq.
Ahmed, who owned a women’s shoe store in the Syrian city of Raqqa, told of being berated every few days by members of the Hisba because he was waiting on female customers. His wife or sister should do that, they insisted, while also forbidding him from hiring women not related to him.
And if one of his customers so much as lifted the veil from her face to look at a pair of shoes, members from the Hisba – or its women’s branch, al-Khansaa – would beat her with a bamboo pole, Ahmed said in an interview with The Associated Press. Like other refugees who used to live in IS-held territory, he spoke on condition he be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisals against relatives still there.
His own nerves were shot from worrying about being arrested or flogged, he said, just minutes after landing on the Greek island of Lesbos in a dinghy with 30 other people. They had sailed from Turkey on the first leg of their journey west.
Ahmed left his wife and three children behind in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the caliphate, and said he plans to send for them once he finds refuge in Europe.
“They are worse than an occupation army and act like they will never leave,” he said. “I couldn’t take it anymore. Something had to be done, and I am doing it now.”
Many of those reaching Greece have lived in Turkey, sometimes for years, before making the journey to Western Europe.
STRICT RULES, HARSH PUNISHMENT
In that time, they grew used to a more liberal society – a far cry from Islamic State rule, where women must cover themselves from head-to-toe in public and cannot leave their homes without being accompanied by a male relative; where smoking is banned and men must rush to mosques at the call to prayer.
The punishment for violating these rules can range from a warning, time in jail, public flogging, or – for the worse offenses – death.
Abdullah, a 36-year-old carpenter from the Syrian city of Deir al-Zour, said he found the version of Islam imposed by extremists too severe – even for someone who prayed five times a day.
“They are so strict with the rules and punishment they leave no room for Islam’s prescribed leniency or repentance,” Abdullah said in an interview in the Serbian town of Bujanovac, where he arrived earlier this month with his wife and two children.
Not long after Syrian rebels took over half of Deir al-Zour in 2013, Abdullah and his family fled the fighting to another part of Syria. But he went back often to check on his house, staying for weeks at a time, even as IS fighters drove out the rebels last year and took sole control of that half of the city, while the rest remained in government hands.
“What really forced me to make this trip is the economic and health situation in Deir al-Zour,” Abdullah said. Most doctors have fled, he added, and while basic goods were available in the IS-held neighborhoods, most people had no money to spend.
After they landed on Lesbos, some of the Syrians and Iraqis were quick to take advantage of their new freedoms.
Couples celebrated by hugging and kissing in public displays of affection rarely seen back home. Some men coped with the heat and humidity by walking the streets shirtless, and they mingled freely with women wearing shorts and tank tops. Many spoke confidently about their rights, even as migrants – though they also expressed worries about potential discrimination from Europeans. There even were street demonstrations on the island against delays in registering the new arrivals before they can get to the mainland.
Ahmed, the shoe store owner who hopes to join relatives in Belgium, arrived in Lesbos with a nephew in the first week of September, about a week after he left Raqqa. He spoke to AP as he took a 3-mile walk from the beach where he landed to the island’s capital of Mytilene, the registration site.
He said that as IS militants became the new rulers in Raqqa, many of the city’s young men joined the group in search for protection and prestige. “Some of them spy on the residents for IS,” Ahmed said.
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