ISIS demands female genital mutilation for Mosul women

The U.N. has stated that militant Islamic group ISIS has ordered all females, including women and young girls, in the northern Iraq city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation.

U.N. official Jacqueline Badcock told the BBC that the order applies to females aged 11 to 46. The edict could affect roughly four million women and girls, the U.N. estimates.

"This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists," Badcock told the BBC. Meanwhile, the U.N. General Assembly called for all its members to ban female genital mutilation in 2012.

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ISIS seized Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, in June, and the order comes as militants expand their reach across northern Iraq.

Update: While the BBC and the U.N. have reported the ISIS decree, others question whether it is a hoax. Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at King's College London, told The Independent that the order may be a false rumor spread by one of ISIS' adversaries.