Reports of the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria calling for female genital mutilation in Mosul, Iraq, have been doing the rounds since Thursday.
Jacqueline Badcock, the second most senior official of the United Nations stationed in Iraq said that the fatwa or religious edict issued in the name of ISIS ordered the girls and women aged between 11 and 49 to undergo genital mutilation. She expressed concern over the edict and said, "This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed," reports Reuters. She also said that it would affect 4 million women and girls.
However, some doubts were raised in the social media raised about the genuineness of the report. Some journalists said on Twitter that their sources in Iraq do not know of such a directive being issued. According to Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and expert on Iraqi and Syrian extremist groups, the concerns expressed by the U.N. stemmed from a "quite clearly faked statement" that was circulated online Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse.
"It would certainly be a very big coincidence if the U.N. source was separate but happened to arise at the same time as this fake statement online," he said.
Leila Fadel, Cairo Bureau Chief of NPR tweeted saying the report was false, "#UN statement that #ISIS issued fatwa calling 4 FGM 4 girls is false residents of Mosul say including a doctor, journalist and tribal leader."
Certain section of bloggers said that the fatwa might have been circulated to discredit ISIS. According to experts on Middle East, the edict did not fit in with the cultural traditions of the region.
The alleged edict, written in Arabic, was circulated on Twitter. Shiraz Maher, a Senior Fellow at King's College London specializing in the Middle East, read the directive and said it was fake. She told i100 of The Independent that female genital mutilation was more "cultural" rather than having a specific link with Islam, adding that it is "not something jihadists have ever really taken up" or "spoken about".
A U.N. spokesman in Geneva said that they were looking for clarity into the matter.
