Syrian women burn burqas in celebration after being freed from Isis

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Syrian women have been filmed burning the burqas Isis forced them to wear in a celebration of the militants being driven out.

“Damn this stupid invention that they made us wear,” one woman said as she set light to the black garment. “We’re humans, we have our freedom.”

The video released by the Kurdish Anha news agency, crowd of women and children cheered as the fabric went up in flames in the city of Manbij.

After adding her burqa to the fire, another woman described how Isis militants had abused civilians and abducted older boys and men.

“They banned television, the telephone, they took all the meat, they took all the bread, we've been living in hunger,” she said.

“They took our men and killed them, they trapped our people in prisons, we want them back.”

The footage appeared to have been filmed by reporters embedded with the dominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are advancing on Isis territory backed by international air strikes.

It was taken in the al-Naimi district of Manbij on 30 July as troops forced Isis to retreat further into the centre of its former stronghold, which is now surrounded by the SDF.

Isis forces women to wear the burqa, which covers the entire body apart from the eyes, as part of its interpretation of Sharia law.

The terrorist group has founded groups of “morality police” who brutally enforce the dress code and other restrictions inflicted on women, who are forbidden from leaving the home without a male guardian.

As military operations in Iraq and Syria drive Isis back from the swathes of territory it seized during a rapid advance in 2014, several similar celebrations have been seen.

In June, 19-year-old Souad Hamidi marked her liberation by tearing off her black veil and replacing it with a red headscarf.

"I felt liberated,” she told Reuters. “They made us wear it against our will so I removed it that way to spite them.

"I want to erase Daesh (Isis) from my memory.

"I hope every area controlled by Daesh is liberated, that people are free of them and can live like we do now."

The SDF’s campaign has been marred by reports of civilian deaths in air strikes by the US-led coalition and war crimes by militias on the ground.

A British man, Dean Carl Evans, was killed while fighting against Isis with Kurdish forces in Manbij last month.