Syrian jihadist group in Idlib replaces security squad with 'moral police'

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has ended the work of Al-Falah apparatus, which it launched in May 2020 as part of the religious police apparatus — Hisbah — that it established in 2014, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sept. 3.

Al-Falah apparatus is tasked with monitoring markets and forbidding the mixing of men and women among other functions, to impose its control over the smallest details of the people’s daily lives. This apparatus continued to harass the population until it was recently suspended, following popular protests against it for interfering in the people’s personal lives and imposing many restrictions on them.

According to an analytical reading prepared by the Istanbul-based Jusoor Center for Studies, Al-Falah apparatus consists of several offices: Women's Patrols Office, Mohtasiboun, Executive Force, Judicial Office and Complaints and Follow-up Office. Its members have absolute authority, such as arresting and holding perpetrators of legal violations accountable, and its actions range from advising to using direct force under the principle of “the duty of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil.” 

One of Al-Falah’s most prominent tasks is to prevent men and women from mixing in public places by erecting control points on university campuses and in parks, preventing men from selling women’s clothes, banning the display of mannequins at shops, monitoring wedding halls and banning music and smoking. In addition, it is known to interfere with women's clothing and accessories and forcing humanitarian organizations to separate their staff by gender.