Was a girl really stoned to death for having a Facebook account?

Two weeks ago, the Islamic State stoned to death a Syrian girl for adultery, despite the fact she never touched another person. Her actual crime? Opening a Facebook account. The report is controversial however because it has not been confirmed by outside sources and was reported by an Iranian news agency. The Fars News Agency broke the story in February.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A girl, Fatoum Al-Jassem as identified in Iranian media, was arrested by Islamic State terrorists after she was caught using Facebook.

An Islamic State court ruled the use of a social network by a woman was the equivalent of adultery and sentenced her to death by stoning. She was subsequently stoned to death in the city of Raqqa in Syria.

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The report however is suspect and it is likely that no such event happened, but the fact that it is within the realm of possibility is troubling. Since the Islamic State punishes even trivial infractions so severely, the story (or myth) resonates with people.

In the past few years, Syria has gone from being one of the most liberal and progressive states in the Middle East, in spite of the dictatorship of Bashir al Assad, to becoming one of the most repressive places in the world.

The unlikely, but possible execution of Fatoum is proof that even young people, and probably even children, are subject to the harshness of cherry-picked sharia laws.

Crimes of every nature are severely punished and the death penalty is a common end for most criminals. Other punishments include amputations and public floggings. Men rumored to engage in same-sex relations are thrown from buildings and any which survive the fall are subsequently stoned in accord with the group's militant interpretation of the Quran.

Even if the case is propaganda spewed by the Iranian government, and no such trial and execution took place, the terror that the Islamic State inflicts on people is real. The little news that does escape warns of ever-harsher laws mostly targeting women.

Salons are closed, women are compelled to cover themselves entirely and now require the escort of their male relatives when going out. Women are only permitted to see female doctors.

The city of Raqqa is also policed by a brigade of female secret police. Armed with AK-47s, these women patrol under the cover of their burqas. Even the men cannot tell if a woman is an ordinary citizen or a member of the secret all-female brigade.

The women of this brigade are notorious for their cruelty and they prowl for women who are violating the dress code or men who are behaving inappropriately. Even smoking a cigarette can warrant severe punishment.

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