It’s a whole new low for ISIS.
Reports have been circulating for years regarding sickening types of abuse perpetrated by Islamic State: Beheadings, rapes, sexual torture and even the burying alive of pre-pubescent girls.
As if what we already knew wasn’t horrifying enough, the United Nations has now confirmed ISIS is selling children as sex slaves. Worse still, there is an official ‘price list’ detailing exactly how much those innocent boys and girls can fetch on the market.
ISIS’s depraved trade is being publicised on a pamphlet distributed in Iraq, and the details are as horrifying as you’d expect.
It seems the younger the child, the higher the price they fetch. Children aged under 10 years are currently selling for all of $165 USD ($224 AUD), while adolescent girls are valued at $124 USD ($168 AUD).
According to RT news, women over the age of 40 are being sold for around $40 USD ($54 AUD).
Violence sexuelle de l’EI: du jamais-vu dans l’histoire de la guerre http://t.co/B9hQ0Eqpby @annie_mat @ZainabHawa pic.twitter.com/AhFqlqYPzH
— End Rape in War (@endrapeinwar) July 30, 2015
UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura confirmed the price list, first rumoured to exist last year, was genuine.
Confirming that young girls get “peddled like barrels of petrol” by ISIS fighters, she told Bloomberg she was given a copy of the pamphlet during a visit to Iraq in April this year.
Ms Bangura said the slaves, often from the Yazidi ethnic group, are offered to ISIS leaders before being put up for sale to foreign buyers for thousands of dollars. After that, they are offered to fighters for the lower prices listed on the pamphlets.
Related link: UN representative says female captives of the Islamic State are ‘bought and traded like cattle’.
Sometimes, she added, the girls are bought solely so they can be sold to their families for thousands of dollars in ransom money.
The sickening pamphlet is not the first of its type released by ISIS. Last year, the group released a booklet detailing so-called ‘guidelines’ on the treatment of female slaves.
Issued on 3 December, the horrifying guidelines address issues like whether fighters may have sex with pre-pubescent girls, whether children may be separated from their mothers when the girls are sold, and whether women can be beaten.
“If she is a virgin, he [her master] can have intercourse with her immediately after taking possession of her,” the disturbing guidelines state. “However, if she isn’t, her uterus must be purified [first].”
The guidelines stipulate that sex with a prepubescent girl is sometimes permissible.
“It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn’t reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse; however, if she is not fit for intercourse, then it is enough to enjoy her without intercourse,” they read.
Read more: The details of the Islamic State’s ‘guidelines to rape’.
A video last year also showed chilling footage of ISIS soldiers negotiating and selling off girls at a market.
The clip shows the men discussing how much they will pay for women. In it, they debate how much they should pay for a woman with blue eyes and whether they can accept a woman without teeth.
Watch that footage here (post continues after video):
The bloodthirsty Islamic State, which was formed in Iraq in 2004, transformed into the Islamic State of Iraq in Syria (ISIS) as it exists today in April 2013 after expanding into Syria.
The terror group has its base in the Syrian city of Raqqa, but has also conquered significant regions of Iraq, Syria and more recently Libya, the Daily Mail reports.
It has at least 30,000 members and seeks to recruit more as it expands its self-proclaimed “caliphate” across the Middle East and northern Africa.
If you or anyone you know has been the victim of a sexual assault, help is available. Call the National Sexual Assault, Domestic, Family Violence Counselling Service 24/7 on 1800 737 732. Bravehearts is another organisation that help the victims of child sex abuse. You can find more information about it here.
Related:
ISIS is selling girls at the market now.
The creepy blogs luring Australians into joining ISIS.
ISIS’ abhorrent punishment for women who breastfeed in public.