AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: HUNDREDS OF YAZIDI WOMEN TORTURED, RAPED BY IS
18:06 23/12/2014 ” SOCIETY
Hundreds of women of the Yazidi minority in the Iraqi territory
currently controlled by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group are
being tortured and raped, Amnesty International said in a report,
issued on Tuesday, according to Sputnik.
“Hundreds of Yazidi women and girls have had their lives shattered by
the horrors of sexual violence and sexual slavery in IS captivity,”
Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser Donatella Rovera
said, following interviews with several victims who managed to escape.
The adviser noted that victims face physical and psychological trauma,
while those who escape are vilified by their society because of the
“stigma surrounding rape.”
The survivors said that the perpetrators are mostly Iraqi and Syrian
men. A great number of them are IS militants, while others are thought
to be their supporters. Some of the former captives said they were
forced to live in the abductors’ households with their wives and
children, according to the Amnesty International report.
“The Kurdistan Regional Government, UN and other humanitarian
organizations who are providing medical and other support services to
survivors of sexual violence must step up their efforts. They must
ensure they are swiftly and proactively reaching out to those who
may need them,” Rovera added.