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Islamic State Selling Christian and Yazidi Women as "Spoils of War"

  • Carrie Dedrick Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world
  • Updated Sep 05, 2014

Islamic State (IS) militants continue to wreak havoc across northern Iraq; reports now says that the terrorist group is selling Christian and Yazidi women to fighters, calling the women “spoils of war.” 

Hundreds of Yazidi women were captured weeks ago while stranded atop a mountain in Iraq; the Syrian Observatory for Human rights reports that 300 Yazidi women have been forced to convert to Islam and sold as wives for IS fighters. Assyrian Christian women have also been captured by militants and sold to fighters. 

The group sells the women for $1,000. 

An Iraqi refugee only known as Rwaa said, “We fled last night, actually at 3 a.m. in the morning. We were at home when someone came and told us to, ‘Leave! Leave!’ We left with our clothes only. We didn’t even take our passports. And (crying) we have no place to go because no one wants us here. They took everything from us… They took the women. They raped them. They are selling them. For God Sakes, they are selling them! What century are we?”

UN religious rights monitor Heiner Beilefeldt confirmed the reports. “We have reports of women being executed and unverified reports that strongly suggest that hundreds of women and children have been kidnapped — many of the teenagers have been sexually assaulted, and women have been assigned or sold to ISIS fighters,” Beilefeldt said. 

Publication date: September 5, 2014