ISIL sends prettier virgins to Raqqa to sell them at higher prices: UN envoy

PRESS TV

Tue May 19, 2015 11:16PM

File photo shows an internally displaced Izadi girl who has taken shelter at a school in Dahuk, 420 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. (AP Photo)

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists send “prettiest virgins” to the northern Syrian city of Raqqa to sell them at higher prices there, a UN envoy says.
Following her investigative mission to Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan to gather data on the ISIL sex crimes, Zainab Bangura, the special representative of the UN secretary general on sexual violence in conflict, told online news portal Middle East Eye on Monday that the Takfiri group is committing horrendous crimes against women, particularly against the Izadi community.
After the Takfiris attack a village, they strip the girls naked, conduct virginity tests, evaluate their physical attributes, and send them to slave auctions, with those considered the prettiest and youngest being sent to ISIL stronghold Raqqa, she said.
Fierce haggling usually breaks out at slave auctions, where the girls are sold naked, but Takfiri leaders are the first to choose, followed by emirs and finally the fighters, Bangura noted.
Each purchaser usually takes three or four girls, keeps them for a couple of months, and then sells them off after getting tired of them, she added.
We heard of one girl who was traded 22 times and of a Takfiri leader who had written his name on the girl’s hand to show that she was his “property,” the UN envoy said.

She added that during their investigation, they found out that ISIL has actually institutionalized sexual violence and is using it as a tactic of terrorism to advance key strategic priorities such as enforcing discipline and order, fund raising, and recruitment.

For example, tens of thousands of the ISIL members expect that they will "get" women to "marry" following their recruitment, Bangura said.
Having found out that the girls were using headscarves to hang themselves, the Takfiri group banned them from wearing headscarves in some regions, the Sierra Leonean activist added.
During the interview, she also talked about a girl who had been burned alive after refusing to carry out extreme sexual acts.
Hundreds of women and girls were abducted last year by the ISIL militants following the fall of the Iraqi city of Sinjar, mainly populated by Izadi Kurds.
The ISIL attacks against the Izadis’ hometown last year displaced tens of thousands of people, including the elderly people and children, many of whom perished while left stranded in the mountains.
The Takfiris currently control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Izadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq and Syria.
SRK/MHB/AS

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