ISIS have turned the Abdul Wahid mosque and the Shahidan mosque into Islamic law courts and there they act as if they have the highest judicial authority. A Hawija doctor told me that any person who violates ISIS rules is trialled in one of these two mosques and also sentenced there.
I was also told that ISIS will soon announce a wali, or guardian, for Hawija and for the other parts of Kirkuk province that they control – this includes Rashad, Zab, Riyadh and Abbasi. Once a wali is appointed, ISIS plan to re-open various institutions and businesses that are closed.
One of the employees at Hawija’s courts said that most of the district government’s staff had left town and those who had stayed were not going to work because they were worried that the central government would just consider this time an open vacation, which was what they were apparently doing in Mosul. The staff also know that ISIS won’t be paying their salaries.
“ISIS is calling people in the alleys and the markets to go back to work,” says this former administrator, who stayed Hawija but who didn’t want to give his name. “But only a few people are responding to those calls.”
The fact that the provincial authorities are no longer running anything is making life very difficult for locals. Water and electricity are only available for a few hours a day, the prices of market goods have risen and there are fuel shortages.
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