Open Your Eyes
The Times reports on an initiative from a campaign group in Birmingham, Open Your Eyes, which aims to tell the truth about the treatment of women and girls in northern Iraq at the hands of the so-called Islamic State.
Women raped by Isis warn pupils: don’t fall for jihadist lies
Yazidi women at a health centre in northern Iraq, where many were given tests and emergency care upon their release after months of enslavement by Isis Safin Hamed/Getty Images
By Greg Hurst - The Times
Young Iraqi women who were raped repeatedly by Islamic State fighters have described their ordeals to British schoolchildren as part of efforts to counter radicalisation.
Women and girls from the Yazidi community have recounted in harrowing detail how they were treated as sex slaves after being captured by Isis and sold on to other men.
Their testimonies, in school visits arranged by anti-radicalisation charities, are a new front in efforts to challenge slick propaganda produced by Isis that has led young Britons to travel to Syria.
First-hand accounts from women abused by Isis fighters are seen as a powerful way of countering appeals to Muslims girls to go to Syria to become “jihadist brides”.
Three Yazidi women spoke to a group of pupils at Saltley Academy in Birmingham, one of the schools whose former headteacher was ousted by hardline Muslim governors during the Trojan horse controversy, in an attempt change perceptions about Isis.
“I want [young people] not to believe what they see on Facebook,” one of the woman, aged 21, told them, according to The Guardian. “There is no life with Daesh [Isis] apart from rape and killing.”
Such testimonies are perhaps the most striking example of how community organisations led by Muslims are trying to mobilise opposition to the extremist group.
The talk was organised Upstanding Neighbourhoods, an anti-extremism charity launched by Muslims in Birmingham and Bradford, as part of their Open Your Eyes campaign. The organisation is seeking to mobilise grassroots alarm at the recruitment of young British Muslims to join Isis.
Last week a second grassroots campaign was launched, called Fightback Starts Here, with support from a range of religious organisations but led by the Federation of Muslim Organisations. It wants to co-ordinate efforts to counter grooming and online radicalisation by extremists. The campaign was also backed by relatives of David Haines and Alan Henning, who were murdered by Isis last year.
Last month David Cameron appealed to Muslims to do more to challenge extremism, saying in a speech in Slovenia that part of the reason for the potency of radical Islam was that it was “quietly condoned” online and even in parts of the Muslim community.
Another initiative launched by the charity Upstanding Neighbourhoods is to try to counter extremist material circulating online with a “See it, Report it” campaign that urges people to flag online material that glorifies violence or extremism. Its website includes instructions on how to report extremist content on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo, Tumblr, Whatsapp and Vine.
Young Iraqi women who were raped repeatedly by Islamic State fighters have described their ordeals to British schoolchildren as part of efforts to counter radicalisation.
Women and girls from the Yazidi community have recounted in harrowing detail how they were treated as sex slaves after being captured by Isis and sold on to other men.
Their testimonies, in school visits arranged by anti-radicalisation charities, are a new front in efforts to challenge slick propaganda produced by Isis that has led young Britons to travel to Syria.
First-hand accounts from women abused by Isis fighters are seen as a powerful way of countering appeals to Muslims girls to go to Syria to become “jihadist brides”.
Three Yazidi women spoke to a group of pupils at Saltley Academy in Birmingham, one of the schools whose former headteacher was ousted by hardline Muslim governors during the Trojan horse controversy, in an attempt change perceptions about Isis.
“I want [young people] not to believe what they see on Facebook,” one of the woman, aged 21, told them, according to The Guardian. “There is no life with Daesh [Isis] apart from rape and killing.”
Such testimonies are perhaps the most striking example of how community organisations led by Muslims are trying to mobilise opposition to the extremist group.
The talk was organised Upstanding Neighbourhoods, an anti-extremism charity launched by Muslims in Birmingham and Bradford, as part of their Open Your Eyes campaign. The organisation is seeking to mobilise grassroots alarm at the recruitment of young British Muslims to join Isis.
Last week a second grassroots campaign was launched, called Fightback Starts Here, with support from a range of religious organisations but led by the Federation of Muslim Organisations. It wants to co-ordinate efforts to counter grooming and online radicalisation by extremists. The campaign was also backed by relatives of David Haines and Alan Henning, who were murdered by Isis last year.
Last month David Cameron appealed to Muslims to do more to challenge extremism, saying in a speech in Slovenia that part of the reason for the potency of radical Islam was that it was “quietly condoned” online and even in parts of the Muslim community.
Another initiative launched by the charity Upstanding Neighbourhoods is to try to counter extremist material circulating online with a “See it, Report it” campaign that urges people to flag online material that glorifies violence or extremism. Its website includes instructions on how to report extremist content on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo, Tumblr, Whatsapp and Vine.
