If they violated the dress code, they were required to wear long, black robes and black veils.
On the former bullet-strewn facades of Mosul, colorful murals have begun to appear. Many of them feature huge pictures of women’s faces.
This street art is a symbol of the energetic rebuilding taking place in Mosul nearly five years after ISIS ruled the city.
Two murals were painted by Rusul Ahmed, a twenty-year-old.
She says, “It’s not wrong for a woman to show her beauty.”
A 15-foot tall mural depicts a woman with jet black hair and dramatic eye shadow. The university student is standing before it. The portrait shows the woman’s chin rising slightly in the portrait. This exudes confidence and maybe even defiance.
“When ISIS arrived, women had to cover their bodies, including her face. Ahmed said that this is wrong as women should be free to live their lives.
Mosul couldn’t picture Billie Eilish or Ariana Grande murals underneath ISIS.
Ahmed is standing before a mural on a wall that ISIS used as a place to post strict morality rules and punishments for violating them. The wall has bright portraits. The majority of the portraits are of women, including Zaha Hadid, a well-known British architect from Iraq, who passed away in 2016.
Mosul residents were not allowed to listen to Western music or have satellite TV. Ahmed and her 7Arts team wouldn’t have been allowed to paint this mural featuring Billie Eilish or Ariana Grande.
“This is Ariana Grande. People love her! Ahmed points to Ahmed’s colorful face, which is painted in bright blocks of color. She adds, “And she listens to me because I want to learn my language,” with a grin. She helped me a lot.
A reconstruction effort is underway to rebuild a mosque that has been destroyed.
Much of the Old City is still in ruin across the Tigris River, as seen in the Ariana Grande painting. ISIS fighters occupied the city, and the area was bombarded by an incessant U.S. and Iraqi bombing campaign in 2017 to dislodge them.
The iconic minaret at Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque was destroyed by ISIS fighters as they fled. They are now being rebuilt by an international team.
Although parts of the Old City may be returning, many narrow alleyways in the Old City remain pockmarked by shrapnel.
Munir Majed started creating murals in the city three years ago with Art Revolution. A painting depicting a woman looking through a window is highlighted by the 21-year old engineering student.
He says, “The woman is gazing at the symbols Mosul.” “The statues, gates, and other things that were destroyed or rearranged by ISIS. The bullet holes can be seen in the background of the wall. These walls had bullet holes, and most of them were identical.
Majed chuckles nervously when Majed is asked if he would have been able to paint something similar during ISIS’s control of the city. Majed slashes his throat with a fork and tells me he would be killed if he attempted to paint this under ISIS.
Colorful murals counter dark times under ISIS
A graffiti-style mural in eastern Mosul that reads “I HEART MoSUL” with orange letters and a heart is located at an overpass on the highway. It is flanked by large, colorful paintings depicting faces of Iraqi women.
Ali Al-Baroodi is a professor in the Media Department at University of Mosul. He says, “It’s almost like a carnival of colours.” “Like, could it not be more symbolic?”
Baroodi was born and raised in the city. He’s 40 years of age. The recent murals are his reaction to the ISIS occupation’s dark times.
He says, “So Mosulis and Mosuli artists are responding with colors, and with freedom.” In that time, you saw women covered in black. You can now see women free of walls, and even off walls.
According to Baroodi, Mosul has been a multicultural, multiethnic place throughout history.
He also said that ISIS’ dark vision of the region was not going to succeed.
