ISIS uses theology to justify rape, enslavement of Yazidi women
At least 3,144 Yazidis are still being held by the self-styled Islamic State, The New York Times reports. Militant leaders cite the Quran in justifying the enslavement of women.
At least 3,144 Yazidis are still being held by the self-styled Islamic State, The New York Times reports. Militant leaders cite the Quran in justifying the enslavement of women.
A wrenching look by The New York Times into the Islamic State鈥檚 enslavement and rape of women from the Yazidi minority group has shed light on one of the most disturbing aspects of its rule in Syria and Iraq.
The practice, according to reporter Rukmini Callimachi, was formalized a year ago, when IS announced it was bringing institutionalized slavery back. Since then an entire 鈥渋nfrastructure鈥� 鈥� warehouses, buses, viewing rooms 鈥� has emerged to facilitate the trade of women and girls.聽
Even if captives are released or manage to escape, the trauma doesn鈥檛 end, given the stigma that is associated with rape victims in conservative societies.聽So far, the Yazidi community has said all the right things. Baba Sheikh, a prominent religious leader, has at least twice reassured women they will be welcomed back to the community, according to a Human Rights Watch report in April.
鈥淭hese survivors remain pure Yazidis and no one may injure their Yazidi faith because they were subjected to a matter outside their control.鈥� We therefore call on everyone to cooperate with and support these victims so that they may again live their normal lives and integrate into society,鈥� Baba Sheikh said in February, according to HRW.
The rights group says his pronouncement has helped prevent harm to Yazidi women and girls returning after Islamic State enslavement and 鈥渆ncouraged their families to seek treatment for them.鈥�
海角大神 reported in November from northern Iraq that the stance adopted by Sheikh and other Yazidi leaders appears to have eased re-entry for those who were either bought back, escaped, or released.聽
鈥淲e would never allow anything to happen to them,鈥� a Yazidi man in Zakho told the Monitor. 鈥淚f anything, they are more deserving of our respect because of all they have endured for our religion.鈥�
But pronouncements of support are only the beginning. Building up an infrastructure 鈥� health care and legislation, for example 鈥� that can provide logistical support for returning women is much harder. NPR reported in November that while the community talked openly about the horror IS inflicted on women and girls, many of them 鈥� in numbers that suggest they may have been trying to cover up what really happened 鈥� tell stories of 鈥渇ighting off鈥� captors. Public acknowledgement of pregnancy is 鈥渞are.鈥� Al Jazeera reports that women often request hymen reconstructive surgery to disguise the fact that they were raped.聽
Khalida Khalid, a Yazidi adviser to the Kurdish parliament in Iraq, tells NPR that activists are carefully watching how the families treat the woman as they return. The issue has raised the possibility of a law in Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region, that would make abortion legal in cases of rape by IS.聽
"It's very difficult to have the babies of terrorists," Khalid says. "People can't accept that."