afrinpost
The violations carried out by the Turkish-backed “Suleiman Shah/ Al-Amashat” militia, led by the so-called “Muhammad Al-Jassem” (Abu Amsha) in Shieh/Sheikh al-Hadid sub-district, go beyond seizing the property of Kurdish citizens and implementing Turkey’s policy of demographic change, as the militants there are restricting women and girls under eighteen, interfering in most details of their private lives, including the clothes they wear.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a source from Shieh / Sheikh Al-Hadid sub-district, asked not to reveal his name, what happend withn a 14-year-old girl, who was beaten and threatened to shave her hair by the so-called “Muhammad Al-Jasim” (Abu Amsha), the militia leader himself.
On 10/15/2020, al-Amshat gunmen intercepted the girl on a street in Shieh, and arrested her immediately on charges of wearing make-up and violating the decision to wear the full and obligatory Islamic dress. She was taken to the police station, and it happened that the so-called Abu-Amsha was visiting the center. Upon her arrival, he slapped her on the face several times, then ordered his officers to bring a barber to cut her hair completely.
The little girl was appalled by the situation and started crying her eyes out, and, while gunmen did not allow her to communicate with her family to help her. After crying bitterly and begging, Abu-Amsha retreated at the last moments before cutting her hair, and she was released to return to her home, after threatening and warning her of a severe punishment if she was caught not wearing “Islamic dress/hijab.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights followed up on the issue, and it confirmed, quoting its sources, that the gunmen of “Suleiman Shah / Al-Amshat” militia are forcing unveiled women to wear the veil under duress and penalty of punishment, which may be a complete haircut, or arrest and torture, and the militias invoke the argument that indigenous Kurdish women should imitate the IDP women, who were brought in by Turkey in the sub-district, those coming from different environments and culture backgrounds.
On the other hand, the market and clothing stores are being monitored in the sub-district campaigns are being carried out to ensure that there is no other clothes but the Islamic dress, and thus it is confirmed that those brought in to Afrin region are settlers, not displaced, because the displaced is a defeated person trying to assimilate the culture of the area in which he is seeking refuge, not imposing his culture on the original inhabitants of the area and harass them.
