page_title: Ruqia Hassan
section_title: Context
hierarchical_section_title: Ruqia Hassan / Context
caption_attribution_description: English: Ar-Raqqah, Syria, town center north of clock tower Deutsch: ar-Raqqa, Syrien, Geschäftszentrum nördlich Uhrturm
context_page_description: Ruqia Hassan Mohammed, also known by her pen name Nissan Ibrahim, was a Syrian independent journalist and blogger based in Raqqa, Syria. She was a member of the activist group known as Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, and wrote frequently under the pen name Nissan Ibrahim. She is thought to be the first identified female citizen journalist executed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
context_section_description: Of six journalists executed by ISIL over a nine-month period from 2015 through 2016, Ruquia Hassan was one of those six. The others have been identified as Zahir Al-Shurqat, Ahmed Mohamed al-Mousa, Ibrahim Abd al-Qader, Fares Hamadi, and Naji Jerf.
  In 2014, ISIL gained control of the city of Raqqa, and was secured as the head of the Caliphate. Numerous recruits of the group from abroad and within Syria began to immigrate to the new capital to continue their cause. The group also continued to steadily produce media content to draw in supporters to Raqqa, and strengthen their hold of the city. As a result, the conditions within the city began to rapidly deteriorate. Oppressive new rules were enacted, and the breaking of these new laws would lead to frequently public discipline or execution.
  ISIL quieted any criticism in Raqqa and nearby cities through fatal force. Vocal opponents of ISIL and anyone believed to be actively transmitting intel about the group were met with executions. The increased suppression was believed to come directly from the deaths of well-known members caused by coalition forces, helped by the supply of inside information about the group.
  Journalists, a large portion of the vocal dissidents against the regime, became a prominent group targeted by the organization. Work done by journalists like Hassan caused them to be publicly labeled as spies. Her execution was just one example of a larger overall movement to suppress the transmission of the truth about the group's actions by the Syrian and Turkish journalistic communities.
caption: Raqqa, Syria, which in 2014 became the capital of the Islamic State.
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