ISISSexual violence against the Yezidis is part of IS’s genocide campaign
Among the many atrocities Islamic State (IS) has committed, their violence against the Yezidis, a small religious minority in Iraq and Syria, can be classed as genocide. They have subjected the Yezidis to killing, serious bodily or mental harm, and the infliction of conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction. The crimes against Yezidi women, especially, have the potential to permanently destroy a population’s capacity to rebuild itself as a stable and active group. Familial relationships break down and the victims of these crimes become ostracized, and are unable to marry or have children. It is something that the perpetrators of genocide have known for centuries. A group can be destroyed – if you also destroy their ability to reproduce.
Among the many atrocities Islamic State (IS) has committed, their violence against the Yezidis, a small religious minority in Iraq and Syria, can be classed as genocide. They have subjected the Yezidis to killing, serious bodily or mental harm, and the infliction of conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction.
Our research examined the evidence for genocide, which included reports of the horrific acts of gender violence carried out against the Yezidis. In its online propaganda magazine Dabiq, IS detailed its “religious justification” for a policy of rape, sexual violence and slavery. IS specifically singled out Yezidi females for persecution and differentiated them from other religions. Whereas Muslims, Christians and Jews are considered to be “people of the book”, the Yezidis are considered pagans and labelled as “devil worshippers”.
A United Nations report found evidence of “widespread and systematic enslavement, including selling of women, rape, and sexual slavery, forced transfer of women and children and inhuman and degrading treatment”. IS are known to have attacked villages and then divided the inhabitants by gender, executing any males aged 14 and above.
The report by the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict goes on: “The women and mothers are separated; girls are stripped naked, tested for virginity and examined for breast size and prettiness. The youngest, and those considered the prettiest virgins fetch higher prices and are sent to Raqqa, the IS stronghold.”
Sheikhs get first choice, then emirs, then fighters. They often take three or four girls each and keep them for a month or so, until they grow tired of a girl, when she goes back to market. At slave auctions, buyers haggle fiercely, driving down prices by disparaging girls as flat chested or unattractive.
Many of the women and girls were regarded as chattels, imprisoned in houses and held in sexual slavery. Human Rights Watch documented a system of organized rape and sexual assault, sexual slavery and forced marriage by IS forces. As with enslavement, there was evidence that religious “justifications” had been accepted and followed by IS members to dehumanize Yezidi victims and rape them.
