Yazidi Women Describe Repeated Rapes, Beatings and Horrific Torment at the Hands of ISIS Fighters

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Yazidi Women Describe Repeated Rapes, Beatings and Horrific Torment at the Hands of ISIS Fighters

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  • Iraq(Photo: Reuters/Ako Rasheed)
Members of the minority Yazidi sect who were newly released hug each other on the outskirts of Kirkuk, April 8, 20Christian Post Report – 15. More than 200 elderly and infirm Yazidis were freed on Wednesday by Islamic State militants who had been holding them captive since overrunning their villages in northwestern Iraq last summer.
  • Yazidi Sex Slave(Screengrab: New.com.au)
    • An escaped Yazidi sex slave tells of her experience in ISIS captivity.
  • A refugee woman from the minority Yazidi sect(Photo: Reuters/Rodi Said)
    • A refugee woman from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, sits with a child inside a tent at Nowruz refugee camp in Qamishli, northeastern Syria Aug. Christian Post Report – 17, 20Christian Post Report – 14. Proclaiming a caliphate straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State militants have swept across northern Iraq, pushing back Kurdish regional forces and driving tens of thousands of Christians and members of the Yazidi religious minority from their homes.

    Two young Yazidi women have described the unimaginable cruelty and horrific rapes they endured while under the control of their ISIS captors, one of whom reportedly beat a woman’s Christian Post Report – 1-year-old child in front of her until all of his sexual demands were met.

    Reehan, Christian Post Report – 19, and Barfo, 25, last names not included to protect their identities, told their stories to the British MailOnline.  Raheen, married with a young son, was abducted from her home in Northwestern Iraq. She was auctioned off to a 50-year-old fighter whom she was able to fend off at first until the man started beating her Christian Post Report – 1-year-old son. She then said she was forced to give in to all of his demands to save the life of her son.

    “I agreed to everything that this man wanted for the sake of my son,” she declared. Reehan was subsequently locked up in the man’s home for the next Christian Post Report – 10 months. She further explained that she tried to stop the repeated rapes by appealing to her captor’s Islamic beliefs, but he said the sex trade among Yazidi women is permitted “according to Islam.”

    Reehan was sold into sexual slavery multiple times, all while being raped and beaten, but refused to commit suicide in fear of what might happen to her young son. She said she had to risk her life to flee her final captive once she saw a mother and daughter being raped together. She fled to another house in Syria, sought help, and a $Christian Post Report – 15,000 ransom was paid by her mother with the help of charities that raised some of the funds demanded by the Syrian man who offered to help her escape for a fee.

    The Christian Post previously reported on the torture of Yazidi girls and women at the hands of ISIS militants who bragged about releasing those who were raped after they converted to Islam. Raheen says her husband, father, and two sisters are still being held captive by ISIS and she fears they might already be dead.

    “I want to leave Iraq. But I have nothing, no husband. I have no hope in [this country],” she said.

    Raheen now lives in the Khanke refugee camp in Iraq.

    Barfo, too, was raped and tortured. She was sold at a slave auction to a 35-year-old ISIS fighter who injected her with morphine while he repeatedly raped her. “I tried to fight him, but I could not because he was too strong [and] he tied me to the bed and he injected me with morphine to make me silent,” she said.

    Barfo tried to commit suicide with a gun but was stopped by her captor. She explained that she was beaten so severely that she could not walk for two months. She was subsequently sold to four different ISIS fighters who all raped her; then she was thrown into a pitch dark cell for Christian Post Report – 10 days and was only able to escape when a Syrian neighbor of an ISIS militant took pity on her.

    Reehan and Barfo do not know how much they were sold for, virgins and what ISIS deems to be “the prettiest of girls” fetch the highest prices at auction. Barfow said her mother and brother are now with her in a refugee camp but the rest of her family has been captured by ISIS.

    The torture and rapes are so cruel that there are frequent reports from Amnesty International of Yazidi women and girls committing suicide. Yazidis are a Kurdish monotheistic community who primarily come from Northern Iraq, and have long been a favorite target of persecution by Muslims in the region.

    ISIS (Photo: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih)

    Ilham, a Yazidi woman, folds the curtain of the tent where she lives in a refugee camp near Duhok, February 26, 20Christian Post Report – 15. Reuters photographer Asmaa Waguih: Ilham was kidnapped by Islamic State in August last year and was transported to Tal Afar along with other girls and women. She was raped several times by one of the militants. When Ilham tried to escape, some people she asked for help handed her back to the militants. She managed to get away a few weeks later. At refugee camps in northern Iraq I met and photographed Yazidi women who had survived being kidnapped by Islamic State. I needed government approval to visit some of the camps. The camp officials wanted to protect the women and were wary of the fact that I had a camera. It took a while for the women to get used to me. But when they did, they were happy to share their stories, to tell me what had happened to them. It is very difficult for women living in a quiet, conservative area to admit they have faced sexual violence. In some cases, I heard from camp officials that a woman had been raped, but when I met her she would speak of the brutality of the militants and then mention knowing that some women had even been raped. In general, escapees would try to find a time when the militants were busy working and then seek help. Sometimes people would agree to hide them and then find cars to take them to other areas. At other times they would return the women to Islamic State. Some had managed to escape in groups. Others had family members still being held by the insurgents. It’s a disastrous situation for these families’ and it’s not over yet.

    Source : Christian Post