ISIS Sex Slave Market Staged In London

We’ve all read about the savage beheadings of journalists and aid workers by the Islamic State (IS), as well as the horror tales of them taking over towns and villages and destroying non-Sunni places of worship. 

While these stories have saddened many of us in the West, the treatment of women by the Islamic State has been overshadowed.

Now, a group of Kurdish activists in the UK are changing that. They aren’t only shining a light on the women and girls who are under threat from IS, they’re also bringing IS to our doorstep.

Through a controversial stunt aimed to shock Londoners into opening their eyes, Islamic State’s activities were brought to life right here on the streets of London. The group of Kurdish protesters staged one of IS’s “sex slave markets“, bringing along four chained and veiled women and urging the British public to bid on them.

Through shocking statements, men urged the crowd to bid higher than $50 for a particular girl because she was a 14-year-old “virgin” and would “cook and clean”.

The staging was conducted in a number of London’s most popular areas, including Leicester Square, Downing Street and in front of the Houses of Parliament.

Human Rights Watch has said that Islamic State are currently holding hundreds of Yezidi women and children captive in makeshift detention facilities in Iraq and Syria, while many of the teenage girls have been forced to marry IS fighters.

One of the Kurdish protesters said:

“This happens every day in Iraq and Syria. We are bringing it to you.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbnyqYd3W_0

Islamic State’s own magazine, Dabiq, confirmed the kidnappings and selling of young girls in their latest edition, which stated:

“The enslaved Yazidi families are now sold by the Islamic State soldiers. The Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Sharia amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations.”

The magazine is printed in English, indicating that it is aimed at a Western audience, and that Islamic State aim to hide nothing from us. The article goes on to state that anyone who opposes the kidnapping and selling of the girls isn’t truly Muslim.

Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American academic and expert on the Middle East, expressed her concern at world leaders treating IS’s cruelty against women as a “side issue”.

“To the men of ISIS, women are an inferior race, to be enjoyed for sex and be discarded, or to be sold off as slaves.”