Women and girls are being captured, abused and sold for sex in the #Kurdistan Region of #Iraq. http://t.co/bTBIYvHsix
— ECPAT International (@ECPAT) September 4, 2014
Still, of all the hundreds of Yezidi girls and women captured, abused and sold as war booty by Islamic State militants in Iraq, she has to count herself among the fortunate.
That is because 19-year-old H. Ali, identifying herself only by her initial and already a widow with a three-year-old child, managed to escape. She lives to tell the tale of her abduction, captivity and abuse by the Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS) armies.
What has emerged from her account – and of the few like her who could tell their stories to Rudaw — after storming the Yezidi town of Shingal and nearby villages early last month, the militants embarked on a frenzy of killing, looting and abuse.
They killed the men, captured the women and separated young girls – some as young as 10 – to hand out or sell as war prize to fighters, their leaders or anyone willing to pay.
“When I saw the militants sexually abusing 10 and 12 year old girls, death became a normal thing to me,” said Ali, whose village of Girizer near Shingal was overrun by the militants on August 3.
