In what can be considered as institutionalisation of sexual violence, reports have emerged from Syria and Iraq that girls are being stripped and paraded in slave markets, and sold for sex by the ISIS members.
Listing examples of sexual slavery and brutalisation of women in the ISIS held territories, Zainab Bangura Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence, said that girls were “literally being stripped naked and examined in slave bazaars”, as reported in the Daily Mail.
“Girls … are categorized and shipped naked off to Dohuk or Mosul or other locations to be distributed among ISIL leadership and fighters,” she was quoted saying in a report from the UN News Centre.
Explaining that sexual violence was being committed in a strategic, sophisticated and systematic manner in the conflict ridden areas, Bangura said that during her ‘scooping mission’ to the region from 16 to 29 of April, where she travelled to Iraq and, Syria, and neighbouring countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, she met directly with women who escaped the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) captivity and survived sexual violence.
UK based paper The Independent reported Bangura pointing out an instance where one girl had been temporarily married over 20 times, and after each occasion was forced to undergo surgery to repair her virginity. “Women and girls are at risk and under assault at every point of their lives” she was quoted saying by Russia Today, adding that this kind of violent treatment of women was encouraged as a part of jihad.
