ISIS Militants Hold Sex Slave 'Lottery,' Pass Around 8-Y-O Girls to Rape and Torture, Says Escaped Captive
A report released Wednesday that includes interviews with 11 women and nine girls who were sexually enslaved by the Islamic State reveals horrifying details about how the terrorists beat, torture and pass around sexually abused Yazidi and religious minority women and girls.
The investigation, which was conducted by Human Rights Watch, explains that religious minority women and children as young as 8, were abducted by the terrorist group when it took over large swaths of northern Iraq last year. It has been widely reported that many of the abducted young women and girls have been sold in sex slave markets, forced to marry ISIS fighters, and are often sold and raped by multiple foreign ISIS fighters.
The report states that ISIS often holds abducted Yazidi girls in many different locations throughout northern Iraq, in places such as farm compounds, hotels, prisons, military bases, schools, and former government buildings.
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Many of the abducted girls, including two 12-year-olds who spoke with HRW, were often taken to houses or "wedding halls" in certain locations in Syria and Iraq, where there would be about 60 other abducted women waiting to be sold or married off to a militant.
"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," a 20-year-old escaped ISIS captive said. "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 year. Only 20 girls remained in the end."
A 31-year-old woman, given the pseudonym Rashida, told HRW that she was even part of a sex slave "lottery," where militants drew the name of the girl he was going to take home.
Rashida said she remembers calling her brother by secretly using a militant's phone. She said that her brother told her to commit suicide — like many other ISIS female captives have done — if she were not able to escape.
"Later that day they [ISIS fighters] made a lottery of our names and started to choose women by drawing out the names. The man who selected me, Abu Ghufran, forced me to bathe, but while I was in the bathroom I tried to kill myself," Rashida explained. "I had found some poison in the house, and took it with me to the bathroom. I knew it was toxic because of its smell. I distributed it to the rest of the girls and we each mixed some with water in the bathroom and drank it. None of us died but we all got sick, some collapsed."
A 12-year-old girl, who was raped by four ISIS fighters and is referenced by the name of Jalila, said she was separated from her sister and taken to a house in Syria where she was initially selected by an ISIS fighter.
"The men would come and select us. When they came, they would tell us to stand up and then examine our bodies. They would tell us to show our hair and sometimes they beat the girls if they refused," Jalila said. "They wore dishdashas [ankle length garments], and had long beards and hair."
She explained that once she was sold, she was raped for three days.
"I told him not to touch me and begged him to let me go," Jalila said. "I told him to take me to my mother. I was a young girl, and I asked him, 'What do you want from me?' He spent three days having sex with me."
Jalila said that she was either sold or given away as a "gift" to three other ISIS fighters. She added that the last fighter she was with before she escaped used to tie her hands and legs.
Two sisters, 25-year-old Rana and 21-year-old Sara, said their 16-year-old sister told them that a European ISIS fighter had beat and tortured her by giving her electric shocks and denying her access to food.
The sisters further explained that she was then given to another local fighter and was raped for about a month before she was sold to an Algerian ISIS fighter. The last time that they had heard from their sister was when she was sold to a Saudi ISIS fighter.
Twelve-year-old Wafa said that she was selected by an older ISIS fighter. Although he initially assured her that she would not be hurt, she said he ended up raping her.
"He was sleeping in the same place with me and told me not be afraid because I was like his daughter," she said. "One day I woke up and my legs were covered in blood."
