04 June 2015

Six things you need to know about women and ISIS

Last summer, the Islamic State captured Yazidi women and girls from Mount Sinjar — and captured the world’s horrified attention at the same time. As some recall, in August 2014, ISIS forces broke through Kurdish defenses in Northern Iraq, leaving the Yazidi community — which ISIS considers heretical — vulnerable.

One hundred thousand Yazidi climbed up the mountain to escape, prompting international humanitarian assistance — but in the end, more than 3,500 Yazidi women were abducted and subjected to torture, rape and other sexual atrocities, as documented by Amnesty International.

Girls as young as 9 were gang-raped, and women were sold at slave markets for as little as 1,500 Iraqi dinar ($13 dollars). Here are six things you need to know about the way ISIS treats women — in ways that make perhaps the world’s most brutal perpetrator of gendered violence. [The Washington Post] Read more