Molly Crabapple writes, “With the exception of Vice News, ISIS has permitted no foreign journalists to document life under their rule in Raqqa. Instead, they rely on their own propaganda. To create these images, I drew from cell-phone photos an anonymous Syrian sent me of daily life in the city. Like the Internet, art evades censorship.”
In the effort to make sure everything looks Islamic (meaning to abide by the Sharia law of ISIS’s understanding), ISIS established what it calls Husbah. Husbah is a police-like body tasked with enforcing Sharia in public life. It has listed a number of forbidden misdeeds, including smoking tobacco, improper dressing, and swearing.
Scenes from Daily Life in the de Facto Capital of ISIS [Molly Crabapple/Vanity Fair]
(Thanks, Molly!)