Yazidi women and girls held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL) terrorist group and forced into sexual slavery have committed suicide or attempted to
Yazidi women and girls held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL) terrorist group and forced into sexual slavery have committed suicide or attempted to, according to rights group Amnesty International.
The Takfiri militants captured the Iraqi town of Sinjar in early August, when they killed hundreds of residents, kidnapped, and enslaved hundreds of Yazidi women and girls, and forced tens of thousands to seek refuge on Mount Sinjar.
“Hundreds of Yazidi women and girls have had their lives shattered by the horrors of sexual violence and sexual slavery in ISIL captivity,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Advisor, said after interviewing with over 40 Yazidi girls, who had escaped the captivity, in northern Iraq.
"Many of those held as sexual slaves are children -- girls aged 14, 15, or even younger," Rovera added.
A Yazidi man told the rights group’s official that his sister, named Jilan, committed suicide for the fear of being raped by the Takfiri militants.
"One day we were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes. Jilan killed herself in the bathroom," said a girl, who was held with Jilan and managed to escape, adding, "She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was very beautiful. I think she knew she was going to be taken away by a man and that is why she killed herself."
“We tied... scarves around our necks and pulled away from each other as hard as we could, until I fainted... I could not speak for several days after that,” Wafa, 27, told the rights group.
Amnesty also recounted the story of 16-year-old Randa, who was abducted with her family and raped by a man twice her age.
“It is so painful what they did to me and to my family,” Randa said.
Rovera said: “The physical and psychological toll of the horrifying sexual violence these women have endured is catastrophic.
