Islamic State carried out systemic rape of Yezidi women in Iraq, escapees recount horror

Baghdad: In what would send shivers down one's spine, the Yezidi women and girls who managed to escape the ISIS captivity have described horrifying accounts of sexual violence perpetrated against them by the monsters of the Islamic State, a Human Rights Watch report revealed Thursday.

Reports of rape, torture, forced marriages and other acts of sexual violence meted out to women by ISIS fighters, have been surfacing ever since the Islamic State overran Iraq's Nineveh province, capturing scores of Yazidis – which are an ancient minority group and regarded as infidels by the extremists.

An HRW report based on the interview of 20 women and girls who are ISIS escapees, documents the blood-curdling account narrated by the girls who suffered enormous physical and sexual violence at the hands of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

“ISIS forces have committed organized rape, sexual assault, and other horrific crimes against Yezidi women and girls,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. 

She added that those who escaped, continue to endure indescribable emotional trauma and need to be treated.

“The men would come and select us” horrifying testimony from Yezidi survivors escaping #ISIS http://t.co/UJdKgoh8TG pic.twitter.com/MDsxoHt8dE — Liesl Gerntholtz (@LieslHRW) April 15, 2015

“Sometimes I was sold. Sometimes I was given as a gift. The last man was the most abusive; he used to tie my hands and legs,” said one of the teenage girls.

“From 9:30 in the morning, men would come to buy girls to rape them. I saw in front of my eyes ISIS soldiers pulling hair, beating girls, and slamming the heads of anyone who resisted. They were like animals…. Once they took the girls out, they would rape them and bring them back to exchange for new girls. The girls’ ages ranged from 8 to 30 years… only 20 girls remained in the end,”the HRW quoted another girl recounting the heinous experience.

Even those who were luck enough to have avoided rape, talked of having suffered constant stress and anxiety as they witnessed others being tormented and raped.

Calling the acts of organized rape and sexual assault, sexual slavery, and forced marriage by ISIS forces as war crimes and crimes against humanity, the HRW has urged the UN Security Council prevent and address sexual violence in armed conflict.

This comes after the UN released a report describing how rape was being used as a war tactic in 19 conflict-torn countries.

New UN report on rape as tactic of war. @hrw calls on UNSC to promote women's particip in peace efforts http://t.co/pbUyjX7gYO — Sophie Richardson (@SophieHRW) April 15, 2015

The 11 women and 9 girls Human Rights Watch interviewed had escaped between September 2014 and January 2015. And all of them remained separated from family and showed signs of acute distress. Many said they had attempted suicide in order to avoid rape.

However, the ISIS has sought to justify the heinous act of sex slavery, by branding it as a part of Islamic theology.

In an online publication named 'Dabiq' in October last year, the ISIS posted an article named "The revival (of) slavery before the Hour," in which it referred to the Judgment Day and said that it was a "firmly established" element of the Shariah (Islamic Law) to enslave the families of infidels.

"One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar -- the infidels -- and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law," the ISIS wrote.