ISIS Tortures, Rapes Sunni Women in Iraq: HRW

While at the very beginning of its bloody existence, ISIS claimed to be a defender of Sunni people, The New York-based rights organization documented cases of arbitrary detentions of Sunni women, beatings, forced marriages and rape by the ISIS terrorists based on interviews with six victims in Kirkuk, to which they had escaped from the town of Hawija, south of Mosul.
 
Hanan, a 26-year-old woman, one of the victims who had been captured by ISIS terrorists along with other women while they were trying to escape Hawijah, said the terrorists told her that she was an apostate because her husband had earlier fled the town, forcing her to marry the local terrorist leader.
 
She told the HRW that the terrorists blindfolded, beat her with plastic cables, suspended her by her arms for some time and then raped her after she refused to marry the local terrorist leader.
 
The rights body further said the issue was not given enough attention and that too little was being done to tackle the stigma that forbids many more victims from coming forward.
 
“Little is known about sexual abuse against Sunni Arab women living under ISIS rule,” said the HRW’s deputy Middle East director, Lama Fakih. “We hope that the international community and local authorities will do all they can to give this group of victims the support they need,” she added.
 
The official also said the victims of ISIS gender violence “suffer the consequences of their abuse long after they have managed to escape,” calling for “a multifaceted response” to their plight.
 
The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since ISIS terrorists mounted an offensive in June 2014.
 
The terrorists have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.