The ISIS has found a modern, effective way to rape more women without having to face any consequences.
The ISIS could be the next brand ambassador for birth control measures, and this is why. In a chilling revelation, rescued sex slaves have shared how they were tortured. According to the report, ISIS fighters were forbidden by law to rape a woman who was already pregnant. Therefore, before they began raping a captive, they took her to medical centres for pregnancy tests, or arranged abortions to keep her ‘womb empty.’ Besides this, several sex slaves were instructed to take birth control pills regularly so that they could freely be used, without any interruption. Many times, the Isis fighters even gave the women intravenous contraception.
ISIS rule against rape of pregnant women
Princeton University professor Bernard Haykel explains that the ISIS uses centuries-old rulings stating that the owner of a female slave can have sex with her only after she has undergone istibra, which is “the process of ensuring that the womb is empty.” The main goal of this is to ensure that the child’s paternity is clear. However, many Sunni scholars encourage to follow a fairly simple method of determining pregnancy – a period of sexual abstinence lasting for at least one menstrual cycle of the woman. The Isis fighter who are eager to rape have no time, concern or respect to follow such methods with their young sex slaves. They are much more brutal in ensuring that none of their victims get pregnant.
In its official pamphlets, Isis has declared that it is legal for a man to rape the women he enslaves without any restrictions. Even sex with a child is allowed. However, the only respite seems to be the rule against raping a pregnant slave. Even though this ‘protection’ exists for pregnant women, Isis fighters are forcibly ensuring the women slaves use birth control measures. Thus, this rule is yet another source of torture and abuse for the captured women’s bodies. Most of those who are captured are Yazidi women who were picked up after the jihadists attacked their ancestral native land on Mount Sinjar on Aug. 3, 2014.
Nightmares faced by sex slaves of ISIS fighters
A young woman who is now free from Isis capture, shares the harrowing experience she went through, “Each month, he made me get a shot. It was his assistant who took me to the hospital. On top of that he also gave me birth control pills. He told me, ‘We don’t want you to get pregnant.’” This 18year-old captive had been sold to the Islamic State’s governor of Tal Afar, a city in northern Iraq. After this, her ordeal was far from over. She was then sold off to a more junior fighter within the Syrian city of Tal Barak. She was taken by the man’s mother, to a hospital for tests. The girl said, “She told me, ‘If you are pregnant, we are going to send you back. They took me into the lab. There were machines that looked like centrifuges and other contraptions. They drew three vials of my blood. About 30 or 40 minutes later, they came back to say I wasn’t pregnant.” After this, the junior fighter repeatedly raped the young captive, as it was now validated by her negative pregnancy report. After this, the Isis fighter gave the captive as a gift to his brother. This man however, didn’t seem to care for any kind of protocol and raped the girl without bothering to test her for pregnancy.
How useful is the Isis system of birth control for rapes?
It does seem like the use of contraceptives is quite widespread amongst the women raped, as Dr Taib, the physician in Dohuk’s Ministry of Health Directorate shares an interesting fact. He claims that out of the 700 rapes committed, on 35 pregnancies were treated, which is only 5% of those affected. This is very low compared to the findings of a study of mass rape, according to which at least 140 pregnancies would be probable in this case. Dr. Taib said, “Even higher than that, if you consider that these women had multiple partners and were raped every day over many months.” He then explained the phenomenon, “I concluded that either they did an abortion before they came back or they used contraception. And if there were abortions, then there would have been physical signs. There were no signs.”
Middle-aged woman Ahlam, who was abducted by Isis and used as an Arabic language interpreter, tells why birth control is actually a blessing for those raped, “ISIS took our girls as slaves, only for sex. No one wants to carry the child of their enemy.”
However, the Isis system of rape is highly inhumane, and the feeble laws protecting pregnant women have just become a source for forced abortions of pregnant sex slaves, or administering of artificial contraceptives with harmful side effects, on sex slaves as young as teenagers.
Can the ISIS dare to justify rape of helpless Yazidi women as Islamic? Just cowardly acts are anti-religion as possible.