On Thursday, the 13th of August, 2015, for The New York Times, Rukmini Callimachi wrote an article on ISIS and their theology of rape and slavery. The sect, according to Callimachi, is raping and enslaving females in regions they have conquered in Syria and Iraq.

Callimachi’s expose includes testimonies from about 21 escapees from the Islamic state. These victims are mostly the Yazidi females, who have been targeted by ISIS for some time.

“The captives were also forced to answer intimate questions, including reporting the exact date of their last menstrual cycle. They realized that the fighters were trying to determine whether they were pregnant, in keeping with a Shariah rule stating that a man cannot have intercourse with his slave if she is pregnant.”

He bound her hands and gagged her. Then he knelt beside the bed and prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her. When it was over, he knelt to pray again, bookending the rape with acts of religious devotion.

“I kept telling him it hurts — please stop.” “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God.” – A 12-year-old victim.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been terrorizing the Arab countries of Iraq and Syria, committing several barbaric and heinous crimes in the full glare of the world. The extremist militant group is just one of many groups that have sprung up in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya with agendas that claim to be in sync with some religious stipulation.

Callimachi’s article has been received with mixed reviews. It has created a lot of awareness as well as brought some response from people, some ISIS sympathizers, others, activists.

“He said that raping me is his prayer to God. I said to him, ‘What you’re doing to me is wrong, and it will not bring you closer to God.’ And he said, ‘No, it’s allowed. It’s halal.” – A 15-year old rape victim.

In Marium Irshad’s article, she notes, “This honor has left us diseased, where nothing except hating others is considered the right course towards the higher pedestal of gaining Allah’s pleasure”.

ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his crop of fighters’ list of crimes keep piling up as they continue to leave aggravated cases of murders, physical and mental abuse in their wake.

“They laughed and jeered at us, saying ‘You are our sabaya.’ I didn’t know what that word meant.” Later on, the local Islamic State leader explained it meant slave. “He told us that Taus Malik” — one of seven angels to whom the Yazidis pray — “is not God. He said that Taus Malik is the devil and that because you worship the devil, you belong to us. We can sell you and use you as we see fit.” – A 15 year-old slavery victim.

Like most religions, there have to be guidelines enshrouded in a holy document. For ISIS, this pamphlet outlines the codes they have chosen to live by as well as force captured females to adjust to, whether they want to or not.

The document says that slaves belong to the estate of the fighter who bought them and therefore can be willed to another man and disposed of just like any other property after his death. It also allows child rape, “It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn’t reached puberty, if she is fit for intercourse”.

Cole Bunzel, a scholar of Islamic theology at Princeton University, says, “There is a great deal of scripture that sanctions slavery.” “You can argue that it is no longer relevant and has fallen into abeyance. ISIS would argue that these institutions need to be revived, because that is what the Prophet and his companions did.”

In Young Western Women, Fandom and ISIS, Brigitte L. Nacos says, “While Western ISIS women in Syria must know by now about the Islamic States’ views on the roles of wives and female slaves, they do not mention this in their online posts.” “Instead, they glorify ISIS’s religious cause, the courage of jihadists and martyrs, and the responsibility of women to marry holy warriors and give birth to and educate future jihadists.” “Social media posts reveal that young ISIS devotees have great admiration for the Islamic State and its jihadists, not unlike the sentiments displayed by fans of sports clubs and stars in the sports or entertainment world.”

“He destroyed her body. She was badly infected. The fighter kept coming and asking me, ‘Why does she smell so bad?’ And I said, she has an infection on the inside, you need to take care of her.” Unmoved, he ignored the girl’s agony, continuing the ritual of praying before and after raping the child. “I said to him, ‘She’s just a little girl.” “And he answered: ‘No. She’s not a little girl. She’s a slave. And she knows exactly how to have sex, “And having sex with her pleases God” – A 34 year-old woman recounts the experience of watching a 12 year-old girl get raped by an ISIS fighter.,

Some females have however taken the first step towards the ideology of Salafism by identifying with ISIS on their own. The most recent case is that of Khadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum. The three teenagers left families and friends behind in London and went off freely to join forces with ISIS. A recent study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue revealed that about 4,000 Westerners have traveled to Syria and Iraq, more than 550 of them women and girls, to join the Islamic State.

Of the 21 women and girls interviewed for this article, among the only ones who had not been raped were the women who were already pregnant at the moment of their capture, as well as those who were past menopause.

The bigger picture in this matter however, is that the values pushed by ISIS fighters are all just about indulging men in whatever “pleasures” they may crave for. Most of the time, the victims of these perversions are women. This is where the true offence lies.

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