Yazidi women continue to spill the horrific details of what females endure at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq.
“They took young girls, seven, nine and 10 years old,” explained Aveen, 23. ISIS held her for almost a year before she escaped.
The guards held the women and children at a school, separate from the men. At night, those same guards raped the women.
“Some [females] are sold for weapons, or for just $10, or 10 cigarettes,” said activist Khider Domle, who interviewed numerous Yazidis.
ISIS held Aveen in Raqqa. She managed to escape when “her captor’s wife took pity and released her to a neighbor.” After six safe houses, Aveen reached safety outside of ISIS territory.
“I pray for this hell to end,” exclaimed 64-year-old Kimy Hassan Sayfo.
ISIS captured Sayfo’s daughters and granddaughters. Her two daughters escaped, but the militants still hold the granddaughters.
Jeelan and her 9-year-old sister escaped ISIS in August, but not their 11-year-old sister.
“She is very beautiful,” Jeelan commented. “ISIS are asking for $25,00 to $35,000 for her freedom.”
NBC News reported recently the Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights opened a clinic in Duhok “where Yazidi women can receive medical care and psychological treatment.” Captivity causes “psychological trauma” while the rapes and beatings cause “physical injuries.” Unfortunately, the biggest challenge is to convince the women to seek help.
“They don’t want to tell their families,” lamented psychotherapist Shahla Hesein. “They feel ashamed.”
In October, a young Yazidi woman known only as Noor told CNN that the militants justified raping her because the action would make her Muslim.
“He showed me a letter and said, ‘This shows any captured women will become Muslim if 10 ISIS fighters rape her.’ There was a flag of ISIS and a picture of [ISIS leader] Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi,” she explained.
The terrorist’s 11 friends raped her, as well.
Bushra, 21, spoke about how ISIS brought in their own OB-GYNs to determine if the females were still virgins. She saw “two doctors invasively examine girls to find out if they were already pregnant.” If it was positive, they forced the females to have abortions.
“One of my friends was pregnant,” Bushra described, adding:
Her child was about three months in the womb. They took her into another room. There were two doctors and they did the abortion. Afterwards, they brought her back. I asked her what happened and how they did it. She said the doctors told her not to speak.
In November, Kurdish forces discovered a mass grave in Sinjar filled with at least 80 Yazidi women too old to be sex slaves for ISIS. Experts believe the women in the graves are “between 40 and 80-years-old.” Another mass grave contained bodies of men, women, and children.
In May, Zainab Bangura, the United Nations special representative of the secretary-general on Sexual Violence in Conflict, interviewed numerous Yazidi females whom ISIS kidnapped and forced to be sex slaves.
She found what others have previously discovered: rape, slavery, slave markets, and women undergoing surgery to restore their virginity.
“Women and girls are at risk and under assault at every point of their lives,” she explained, adding that the threats lurk behind them “every step of the way … in the midst of active conflict, in areas under control of armed actors, at check-points and border crossings, and in detention facilities.”
One Yazidi woman phoned a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter to beg him and the West to designate as their next target the brothel where she was being held. She said the terrorists “raped her 30 times in just a few hours.” She wants the brothel bombed to kill the jihadists and end the women’s misery as sex slaves.
Bangura said the militants promise young Yazidi girls to ISIS leaders. They also force the girls into prostitution, which is one way the group raises funds. One woman was married off 20 times, but each time, the militants forced her to undergo surgery to repair her virginity.
In November 2014, a video uploaded on YouTube showed ISIS militants laughing and joking while purchasing female Yazidi slaves. One man exclaimed the day was “slave market day.”
“Today is distribution day, God willing,” laughed one man. “Each one [man] takes his share.”
That same man explained the rules of the “auction.”
“Whoever wants to sell his slave, whoever wants to give his slave as a present,” he said. “Everyone is free to do what he wants with his share. Whoever wants to sell, I can buy, my brothers. Whoever wants to sell his slave, I buy. Whoever wants to sell his own slave, I buy. And if you want to give her as a gift, also I take her.”
Another man asks the group who wants to sell and buy. A man in a white hat said he could buy a slave for a pistol. However, eye color and looks make a difference in price.
“The price differs if she has blue eyes,” he said. “I will sell her for a Glock! If she is 15 years old, I have to check her, check her teeth. If she doesn’t have teeth, why would I want her?”