Al-Khanssaa Brigade, women of Islamic State, print manifesto: Girls, 9, may marry

The all-female militia unit of the Islamic State — the Al-Khanssaa Brigade — put out a manifesto that, translated into English, says women should be homemakers and mothers, and that girls as young as age 9 can marry.

“It is considered legitimate for a girl to be married at the age of 9,” the manifesto said, according to an English translation from the London-based Quilliam Foundation, a counterterror think tank, the New York Post reported. “Most pure girls will be married by 16 or 17, while they are still young and active. Young men will not be more than 20 years old in those glorious generations.”

Those who aren’t married by age 9 should at least wed by age 16 or 17, Quilliam said, the New York Post reported. And once married, those girls should lead sedentary, quiet lives as mothers and homemakers, the manifesto continued.

“It is always preferable for a woman to remain hidden and veiled, to maintain society from behind this veil,” the translated manifesto said, the newspaper reported.

Muslim females also ought to stay away from beauty salons and fashion shops, the manifesto went on. And they shouldn’t leave their homes unless “the enemy is attacking [their] country and the men are not enough to protect it,” the New York Post reported, citing the Quilliam interpretation.

Quilliam reported that the reason for the manifesto’s publication was to counter false perceptions that people might have about Muslim women.

The manifesto also says that girls between the ages of 7 and 9 should learn religion, Koranic Arabic and science and then, from ages 10 to 12, more religious studies — as well as “basic cooking,” Quilliam reported, the New York Post said.