Yazidi sex slave escapes Isis to tell her story: 'They took us away like cattle'
The testimony of 'Girl B' is the foundation of a new Amnesty International report on Isis and their use of sexual slavery
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Your support makes all the difference.In late November, after nearly four months as Isis slaves, a 19-year old Yazidi woman and her younger sister escaped their captors — and have revealed how the terrorist group's slave trade operates.
The woman, identified as Girl B, was taken by Isis fighters in early August following their invasion of the Kurdish city of Sinjar. Her 14-year old sister was also taken by the group, but their mother prevented the capture of their 11-year old sister.
She told The Times: "My mother started screaming and begging for mercy as the Daesh (Isis) fighters told my sister and me to join the group of younger women specially selected."
"But they tore us from her grasp. I saw other women in the building being dragged out to waiting lorries by their hair."
Girl B explained that once Isis arrived they began dividing the local Yazidis into groups — first separating men from the women and children, and then separating the married women from the unmarried.
"The Daesh took our names and ages and noted everything down. It was organised and they took us away like cattle."
She said they recognised some of the Isis fighters, explaining that local Sunnis were desperate to join the terrorist group.
"A local mechanic was among them. The Sunni men in our area became Daesh as soon as they got a smell of them approaching. No one even had to ask them to join."
Girl B and her sister were moved twice before they ended up at a house in Baaj, Iraq owned by an Isis sheik.
It was there that they were repeatedly raped by three Isis fighters, a health worker explained as Girl B became distressed and couldn't detail that part of their capture.
They were then sold to an Isis commander called 'Abu Ghuffram' - whom Girl B knew - and taken to his house in the village Rambussi.
She said her period of enslavement alternated between chores and physical abuse, including one incident in which she was choked.
As is practice in Isis, the Yazidis were forced to renounce their faith and convert to Islam.
At the end of November, in the middle of the night, Girl B took her sister and ran, first sliding past a sleeping guard, then climbing a wall, and then running towards Kurdish forces — they were lifted out of danger by a helicopter.
This experience is central to a new Amnesty International report due for release today entitled: 'Torture, sexual slavery in Islamic State captivity in Iraq'.
The report will examine the extent to which enslavement is a key tenant of the Isis ideology. It follows recent communications from group advocating for sexual slavery.
More Isis:
Video: Isis barter over Yazidi girls on 'slave day'
Isis offers cash to young British girls to become jihadi brides
German journalist spends 10 days with Isis fighters
An October edition of the Isis propaganda website Dabiq said: "Enslaving the families of the kuffar [non-believers] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Sharia."
And earlier this month, in its 'Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves', Isis said: "It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn't reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse."
Kurdish regional government says that more than 3,500 Yazidi men, women and children are currently missing, though activist groups say that figure is much higher.
The Peshmerga Kurdish fighters have pushed Isis out of Sinjar, but not before Yazidi families - including Girl B's - were taken deeper into Isis territory.
She said: "I don't know if or when I shall ever see them again."
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