Religion of Peace? (12/06/15)
The Mail is not one of my favourite 'reads', but you've got to applaud the newspaper for continuing to highlight the fate of the Yazidi people at the hands of the Islamic State (IS) while other titles look the other way.
Now no one thinks that Muslims generally are responsible for the deeds of these religious fascists, yet they take their inspiration from the Koran and other 'holy' scriptures which, they say, gives them the authority to treat other human beings in this way.
So what I would like to hear from leading Islamic scholars is that the words of the Koran are not to be taken literally: that this horrific treatment of young girls, women and other prisoners (whether Muslim or non-Mulim) is not justified by scripture, no matter how ancient or 'holy' the book.
'The virgins were taken to a room with 40 men. They lined us up and pointed who they wanted': Yazidi girl, 17, made pregnant by ISIS fighter reveals her nine-month ordeal as a jihadi sex slave
- Teenager revealed how she was sold to Chechen fighter with her sister, 10
- Made to recite Koran verses while fighter and his 'bodyguards' raped them
- When teen tried to fight back, she was scaled with boiling water by rapists
- Girl finally escaped when her captor was killed by the Kurdish in April
A Yazidi teenager has told how she and her little sister were raped daily by depraved jihadists after they were sold into slavery at an auction of virgins - as she revealed she is now pregnant with the vile extremist's baby.
The girl, who is just 17, revealed how every day of her nine-month ordeal was 'like choosing between death and death' as she was faced with beatings and sexual assaults by the ISIS militant and his team of 'bodyguards'.
The teenager told how she was gang-raped, whipped and even scalded on the thigh with boiling hot water if she didn't keep with her ISIS rapist's depraved sexual demands.
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Sex slaves: Yazidi women and girls have been separated from their families, forced to convert to Islam and repeatedly raped by ISIS fighters
Horrifying: The teenager told how she and and her 10-year-old sister were handcuffed and taken to a hotel where other scantily dressed women and girls were auctioned off to jihadis Picture: A sex slave victim of ISIS, many of whom say they try to kill themselves so that they won't be raped again
The girl recalled how she was forced to recite passages from the Koran while her 'owner', calling himself Al-Russiyah, and his 'bodyguards' molested her.
Now, three months pregnant with Al-Russiyah's baby, the girl says she gets flashbacks and nightmares about what he did to her.
'It was like choosing between death and death... It was terrible,' she said.
'He beat me and would be with at least one other man every time he had sex with me.'
The teenager was kidnapped last August, after ISIS fighters overran the town of Shingal, also known as Sinjar, in an onslaught which sent thousands of Yazidis who had been living on the Nineveh Plain running for the mountains to escape the extremists.
The teenager was handcuffed and held in a hotel by gun-toting ISIS fighters, with a number of other scantily dressed women and young girls in Mosul, Iraq.
She was then moved to Islamic State's adopted capital of Raqqa, Syria, where she and dozens of other women and girls were underwent an intrusive examination to confirm that they were virgins.
Yazidi woman: 'ISIS fighters took whoever they wanted'
Vile: The girl described how the fighter used to smell her and the other sex slaves each morning, before deciding which one he would take for himself
Horrifying: The girl revealed how she was sold at an auction of sex slaves to a jihadi fighter who raped her repeatedly over nine months. This picture from ISIS social media channels purports to show one such market
Kidnapped: The girl was captured when ISIS overran the Nineveh Plane last August, which sent thousands of Yazidis fleeing for the relative safety of Mount Sinjar (pictured)
'The virgins were taken to a room with 40 men,' she recalled.
'They lined us up and pointed who they wanted... I thought I might be lucky: I was not as beautiful as the others.'
The girl was bought by Al-Russiyah, originally from Chechnya, who purchased her, her 10-year-old sister and two other girls in 10 minutes.
But it was not only the prospect of what the horrors they would face once they were taken away from the auction house which left the girls distraught.
'The day me and my sister were sold was the last day I saw my mother. I will never forget when she started crying and pulling her hair when they took us,' she said.
They forced me to say things from the Koran during the time they did their actions, and if I didn't they whipped me.
Girl, 17, who was kept as a sex slave
Once at their new 'home', an abhorrent daily routine from which they could not escape began.
Each morning, Al-Russiyah would strip the girls naked, then smell them and decide who he wanted to have sex with that day, she said.
After the he had made his choice, his bodyguards would select one of the remaining girls for themselves.
But the bodyguards were so rough with her that the teenager felt relief at being picked by her captor, who would 'beat her less than the other men'.
It was hopeless to resist: on the one occasion she did, one of Al-Russiyah's men poured boiling water on her leg.
'They forced me to say things from the Koran during the time they did their actions, and if I didn't they whipped me,' she said.
'I didn't feel anything. I just felt numb. I wanted it to be over. I wanted to kill myself.
'We were forced to cook, clean and do anything that they told us. We had to obey their orders. Sometimes we had to dance and sing for them.'
Sex slave: The girl is not the only one to speak about her horrific ordeal. Hamshe, a Yazidi girl from Iraq, spoke to documentary maker about being held as a sex slave by Isis militants for 28 days with her baby
Freedom: The girls finally escaped in April, when their captors were killed. They then joined thousands of refugees, like these ones, in hidng from ISIS, who believe Yazidis are infidels who are barely human
But then finally, after nine months of torture which no one should have to endure, a chance to escape arose.
In April, Al-Russiyah was killed, together with his bodyguards, by Peshmerga forces near Sinjar, northern Iraq - and the girls were finally able to flee.
She said: '[Al-Russiyah] and his bodyguards were wounded when they fought against Kurdish soldiers. He died immediately and the guards also.
'That was when we fled.'
Some of the girls ran back to ISIS because they were so afraid. One girl who tried to escape had her legs cut off by the militants, it is claimed.
The girl says life is now difficult for her because the Yazidi community is very patriarchal - and those who have fled ISIS are considered 'tainted' - even though their highest cleric has urged families to accept them.
Her uncle has threatened to kill her if she had been sexually abused by Islamic State fighters, and she is now preparing to terminate her pregnancy.
Delal Sindy, a 23-year-old aid worker from Sweden, has helped tell the 17-year-old Yazidi girl's story.
Ms Sindy, who has been in Kurdistan since October last year, is determined to stay and help in the face of ISIS getting stronger in the region.
'They are growing stronger in certain areas but here they are being pushed further away by the Kurdish military. And they really need help, this is why I am staying,' she said.
