Hisbah of the Islamic State

After the Islamic State's declaration of a caliphate and subsequent control of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, the Islamic State established the Hisbah Diwan, alongside the Al-Khansaa Brigade for women's enforcement of modesty and faith,^[4] in order to enforce Islamic morals and sharia in the public.^[5] The Hisbah Diwan was in almost every single town/city in which the Islamic State controlled in Iraq and Syria, this allowed for means for civilians to interact with them and for them to go to both local and jurisdictional sharia courts.^[6] The Hisbah Diwan was organized hierarchically, with a central office overseeing city-level units. Officers were responsible for enforcing dress codes, religious observance, and market regulations.^[7] These religious observances mostly included the banning and destruction of forbidden items (alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, music instruments) and the destruction of what they deemed to be idols.^[8] The level that the Hisbah Diwan worked at was under the Sharia Shura of the Islamic State, outside of the Military Shura in which fighting units resided, the Sharia Shura is where most if not all Diwans were regulated and created.^[9]

The Hisbah Diwan primarily used tactics of fear and coercion to enforce the Islamic State's interpretation of sharia law, including acts of torture and violence.^[10][11] For crimes of smoking which was common in the territory of the Islamic State, punishments included fines, imprisonment, and public flogging.^[12] Due to the amount of imprisoned in Raqqa, the Hisbah created large detention centers in nearby areas, including near the Al-Tabqa Dam, where the imprisoned included political prisoners and petty thieves.^[13] The hisbah has also been known to carry out extrajudicial executions against what they deem to be violators of Sharia law.^[14] While enforcing the local law and sharia under their interpretation, the Hisbah wear tradition Afghan clothing, specifically the thawb style, and patrol areas where it's been reported by eyewitnesses, they harass women and beat passersby.^[15] These patrols would normally travel around on foot or with vehicles, carrying AK-47s or similar weaponry.^[16] The Hisbah also enforced the dismantlement of what they viewed as shirk and attempted to force an ideal of tawhid, this included the praise of Jesus in Christianity to the destruction of ancient artifacts in Mosul and Palmyra.^[17][18]

The Hisbah Diwan police normally during prayer times would patrol the city before and force anyone who isn't leaving to go to a mosque to go to prayer, sometimes forcefully.^[19]

While the Hisbah Diwan is mostly for enforcement, there have been reports of Hisbah police of the Islamic State participating in torture and rape of women, specifically during the Yazidi genocide, alongside other soldiers a part of the Islamic State.^[20] The Hisbah has also been accused of facilitating crimes against the United Nation's Universal Declaration of human rights and Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols by recruiting child soldiers and renouncing all citizenship, even without legal proceedings, affectively forcing members to be stateless citizens.^[21][22]

After most of the Islamic State's territory was dismantled or taken control of by other forces, in 2017, the Hisbah dismantled themselves and lost most of their power and fled or joined the military of the Islamic State.^[23] Despite this happening in Iraq and Syria, the Hisbah Diwan is still active in areas of Africa including the Islamic State - West African Province and Islamic State - Sahel Province.^[24]