Life In The Islamic State Caliphate

"Just let me go this time for the sake of my children. If I don't have money, what can I do? Should I steal? If I steal, you'll cut off my hand."
"He said, 'I will go and inspect your house, and if I find one pack of cigarettes I will execute you. I told him, 'Go ahead, I haven't got anything."
"I signed it [document vowing to never sell cigarettes or risk execution] -- but I sold again, I didn't stop."
"We had no flour, no rice, no food. I have children, and it was winter and was cold and there was no oil, no gas.... We were living a hellish tragedy."
Falah Abdullah Jamil, 30, Eski Mosul, Iraq

In this Monday, May 18, 2015 photo, Falah Abdullah Jamil poses for a portrait in Eski Mosul, northern Iraq. He was held as a prisoner by the Islamic State group for selling cigarettes - which are banned by the militants - and was tortured while in jail.

He was lined up at a checkpoint manned by jihadis from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, busy searching cars for contraband. In the Islamist Caliphate, after all, cigarettes are strictly forbidden; smoking is a Western-imported human corruption, like drinking, like free exchanges between males and females, like teaching children Western concepts of science and history. Like listening to decadent music, like dancing, like kite-flying, like laughing and partying; forbidden to the faithful.

Pure Islam would have it so. So it has been, so it will be. Falah Jamil was acutely aware of the risk he was running with a cargo of cigarettes being transported in his vehicle. Tobacco is a banned substance; punishable with a fine, or a broken finger. Selling cigarettes can result in a far more dire punishment; it can be regarded as deserving of a death sentence, spontaneously as in 'judge/jury/executioner' carried out.

So when it was his turn to have his vehicle inspected as he headed to his home village of Eski Mosul in northern Iraq, he was asked what his trunk contained. And he responded, "Nothing". When the Islamists opened the trunk they discovered 125 cartons of cigarettes. "I swear, it's out of hunger", he pleaded as the only breadwinner for his extended family, providing assistance as well to neighbours.

The checkpoint commander took over the process at this point, warning Jamil he would go to prison, his car confiscated. Quaking, Jamil promised he would never, ever engage in selling cigarettes again despite dire necessity. The commander after ordering his subordinates to leave, said to Jamil: "I will let you go if you give me cigarettes".

He "said he hadn't had a smoke for three days so when he saw the cigarettes, he was very happy", said Jamil in an interview with The Associated Press in May as he described 7 months living under ISIS rule.

Salim Ahmed, a former Iraqi army member, holds a 'repentance' card the Islamic State issued him shortly after taking over his home village of Eski Mosul. Photo: Bram Janssen, AP