For ISIS, Rape Is An Act Of Worship
ISIS has grown from a mere militant group to a body of believers waging a war against any non-ISIS group, creating caliphates in as many territories as possible. Their infamous videos are gruesome and violent and never ending. ISIS’ growth has been the demise of peace in the territories it controls. The littlest victims have been the most affected either indirectly through the death of their parents or directly through kidnapping, forced into fighting and sexual assaults, which are now on the rise as ISIS believes that rape of women and children “brings them closer to God.”
Based on a tapered analysis of the Quran, ISIS sees rape as a sacrament and an encouraged act of worship, according to the New York Times in a report recounting the rape of a 12-year-old girl by an ISIS soldier.
“He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God.”
The girl’s story went on to detail how the ISIS fighter opened and closed his “act of worship” with prayer. Another girl’s story chronicled how the ISIS soldier who repeatedly raped her defended his actions, telling her raping her was “his prayer to God.”
“He kept telling me this is ibadah (worship).”
ISIS is well organized in its enslavement of women for sex. Their methods include notarized contracts, policy guidelines, and updates in an online magazine that frames the dividing of sex slaves as “spoils.”
While ISIS has created a solid infrastructure, they have created no boundaries, subsequently allowing the rape of children. An internal pamphlet defines child rape as “permissible.” The pamphlet also cites it is permissible to “beat them and trade them in.”
According to Business Insider, ISIS is also selling the freedom of sex slaves, acquiring as much as $10,000 per person. Those who aren’t captured or kidnapped are lured away from their homes. While ISIS is reportedly using sex slaves as a means to recruit additional fighters, the group has also been recruiting fighter brides, some of whom are coming from Western countries, meeting fighters first over the internet. Following an online meeting, young women travel to ISIS strongholds to eventually become martyrs.
Some of the young, unsuspecting women ISIS baits know very little about religion and are roped in by a romanticized notion of jihad coupled with sweet talk. A reporter from Paris who pretended to be a jihadi bride to expose ISIS’ practices noted how an ISIS fighter reached out to her through social media, trying to woo her with pictures and promises of being “treated like a princess.”
For the both the captured and the lured, ISIS fighters are creating deadly conditions for women and girls as an act of worship.
[Photo by John Moore/Getty Images]
