Violence against females central to ISIS ideology

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

There are believed to be somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 women enslaved by the Islamic State.

By Ishaan Tharoor, The Washington Post

Amid all the Islamic State's atrocities — its massacres of civilians, its beheading of hostages, its pillaging of antiquities — the systematic violence the jihadists have carried out against countless enslaved women and girls never fails to shock. For months now, we've heard appalling testimony from women who escaped the Islamic State's clutches, many of whom endured rape and other hideous acts of violence.

Zainab Bangura, the U.N.'s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, recently conducted a tour of refugee camps in the shadow of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, war-ravaged countries where the Islamic State commands swaths of territory. She heard a host of horror stories from victims and their families and recounted them in an interview earlier this week with the Middle East Eye, an independent regional news site.

“They are institutionalizing sexual violence,” Bangura said of the Islamic State. “The brutalization of women and girls is central to their ideology.”

Bangura detailed the processes by which “pretty virgins” captured by the jihadists were bought and sold at auctions. Here's a chilling excerpt:

“After attacking a village, the Islamic State splits women from men and executes boys and men aged 14 and over. 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 ISIS stronghold.

“There is a hierarchy: 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.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20150523/NEWS02/150529579

Scary shit.

[Eleanors38]

1. Which is why some 35% of Kurdish fighters are women.

[GGJohn]

3. Yup,

and I hear that ISIL fighters are scared of them.

[meow2u3]

16. ISIL fighters are a bunch of bullies and cowards

The real reason they're scared of Kurdish women fighters is that the women are fighting back and ISIL can't stand it.

[GGJohn]

20. That's exactly right. eom.

[Novara]

2. If you can, donate to:

Global Fund for Women

[reddread]

4. wanna be's

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/06/971401/girls-human-trafficking-and-modern-slavery-in-america/

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. What are you hoping happens?

As far as I can see, the West has, broadly, two categories of options - ones involving large numbers of boots on the ground, and ones not involving large numbers of boots on the ground.

I think the former will have catastrophic side effects, and the latter will let Isis continue to expand and commit even more, worse atrocities.

If Isis is defeated, the likely alternatives in the region - the Syrian government, the Iraqi Shiite militias, etc - seem pretty appalling too.

Not merely are there no good options, there aren't even any not-unbelievably-awful options.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. What am I hoping happens?

I posted a disturbing story I found in this morning's paper. Are you accusing me of having an agenda?

Guess I hope the Arab world would clean up it's own mess. Aside from that I think knowledge of what kind of shit is going down, no matter how awful, is an essential.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. No, I'm - accusing is more hostile than I intend, but suspecting - you of not having an agenda.

And I'm trying to highlight that fact.

Most posts on DU are "here is something I think is bad, and here is what I think should be done about it".

Most posts I've seen on the subject of ISIS are just "here is something I think is bad".

I haven't seen anyone suggesting any possible remedies, or even much in the way of amelioration, and certainly I can't see any myself - I'm beginning to wonder if sending Western ground troops back in may be the lesser evil, but I suspect the answer is more likely to be no than yes.

At which point there isn't much possible in the way of response beyond shrugging fatalistically and saying "yep, that sucks".

[Sherman A1]

11. Could it be that

this post was simply trying to provide information?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

12. Yes, that's what I'm afraid of. N.T.

[Sherman A1]

13. So,

providing information is a bad thing in your opinion?

Interesting................

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. Not bad, just frustrating. I'm sorry if I gave that impression. N.T.

[Sherman A1]

17. You indicate that you believe there to be only two options

I must disagree, there are more, however those involve a long term commitment to changing the narrative. Increasing opportunities and making those opportunities both be better and appear better than joining ISIS for those who might give such consideration.

I do not expect this to come about, but I do believe it to be part of the long term solution.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. Two categories of options.

I cannot stress enough how far from being an expert I am, but from my armchair it looks as though no course of action not involving the involvement of large numbers of Western ground troops is likely to stop ISIS, and any course of action involving the involvement of large numbers of Western ground troops is going to create a whole host of long-term problems and only be a temporary solution.

In terms of increasing opportunities, I don't see how that can be done in Syria, or in the areas of Iraq that ISIS control.

[CJCRANE]

6. They are ethnic cleansing shias and christians

and other minorities.

I wonder who is behind the mask?

[underahedgerow]

7. More than donating money, we need to talk globally about this massive problem that religious

fanatics and fundamentalists have with women. I have observed that all obsessively religious factions are absolutely terrified of women and do everything in their power to suppress, dominate, control and humiliate them.

Those isis freaks have been so sexually repressed for so many generations that they now only get turned on by adolescent females and with throwing potentially gay people from tall buildings to their deaths. In other words, they fear grown women and gay men... figure that one out pretty quick, right?

The whole point of their forcing women to cover themselves in the muslim cultures is to protect them from the lusts of men.

Yes, I know, there are cries of 'modesty in the eyes of their gods,' blah blah blah, but if we break it down all the way back to the bottom line, it's because men fear their own sexualised reactions around females in these religiously repressed, backwards and un-evolved cultures. Apparently these men fully believe they simply cannot control their own sexuality. Pretty scary, right?

I can't name a culture that has suppressed the sexuality of their males and females to anyone's benefit, at all, whatsoever, anywhere. Yet civilized cultures that openly embrace a wholesome, respectful attitude towards their own bodies and everyone else's bodies are the civilizations that have advanced most rapidly. Have a think about that...

You'll absolutely find that cultures with a healthy, normal regard for the human body are far more advanced socially, psychologically and emotionally. Talking openly about sex, sexuality, our bodies, your bodies, where babies come from and our responsibilities for our bodies from an early age is the key to growth and healthy psychological well being.

[Sherman A1]

18. Agreed

Well Said....

[oberliner]

8. Seems pretty rough for the males as well

"executes boys and men aged 14 and over..."

That's no bargain either.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. ugly, sick