The Latest Item Islamist Rebels in a Syrian City Have Banned

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has issued a ban on shops displaying mannequins in a Syrian city that has been a focal point for anti-Christian decrees, Agence France-Presse reported.

AFP/Getty Images/Ishara S. Kodikara

The mannequin ban is just the latest decision by the jihadi rebel faction in Raqqa where Christians for months have been targeted as the group attempts to implement Shariah law.

The demand to remove mannequins from shop windows was issued on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

AFP reported that ISIL further decreed that men would no longer be allowed to purchase women’s underwear and that undergarments on sale for women may not be “tight, transparent or ornate.”

Under the decree, men and women who are not first-degree relatives will not be allowed to shop together, the Observatory said.

With Raqqa now ruled under the jihadi group’s iron fist, Christians have reportedly been forced to pay a protection tax in gold and have been ordered to limit public displays of their faith.

In February, Reuters reported that Christians in Raqqa would not be allowed to renovate churches, display religious symbols outside churches, pray in public, ring church bells, sell wine to Muslims, drink wine in public or own weapons.

The Christians in the town were reportedly given three choices: convert to Islam, remain Christian but submit to Islamic rule, or “face the sword.”

The Islamist group has also been carrying out outdoor executions in the city, most recently the crucifixion-style killing of two men in April.

Photos purporting to show two of the men bleeding and hanging on cross-shaped structures were posted on various social media accounts.

AFP noted that ISIL is thought to be holding about 1,000 hostages in the town, including those accused of “crimes” including heresy or smoking.