[guest post by Dana]
In light of their plight, how do these women find a reason that makes life still worth living? Below the flesh and bone, all the way down to the gut of the soul, what is there for them to grab hold of or is this simply the point when death becomes a welcome friend?
Further, does this impact your view on whether the U.S. should be more involved in the fight against ISIS or are these spoils of war just the natural result of an active evil that is not our obligation to stop because protecting our own is first priority? If you do see it as a further reason to become more involved, how so, and with what limits or contingencies? I’d be most interested in hearing your thoughts on this.
A young Yazidi woman forced into sex slavery by the Islamic State begged the West to bomb the brothel where she was being held after militants raped her 30 times in just a few hours, it is claimed.
The unidentified woman is understood to have been kept as a prisoner of the jihadists somewhere in western Iraq having been captured by ISIS during the Sinjar massacre in early August.
A group raising awareness of ISIS’ persecution of women in the vast swathes of the Middle East under its control said the woman had contacted Kurdish peshmerga fighters by telephone to plead for the brothel to be bombed to put the women held as sex slaves out of their misery.
She allegedly told the fighters she had been raped so frequently that she could no longer use the toilet, adding that the ordeal has been so harrowing that she plans to commit suicide even if freed.
Details of the woman’s brutal experience at the hands of the Islamic State emerged during an interview with Kurdish activists staging demonstrations in London to raise awareness of the plight of women in the Middle East.
During an interview with BBC World Service, a man identified as Karam described how a friend embedded with the peshmerga took a phone call from the Yazidi woman.
Describing the woman as crying on the phone, Karam quoted her as saying: ‘If you know where we are please bomb us… There is no life after this. I’m going to kill myself anyway – others have killed themselves this morning.’
‘I’ve been raped 30 times and it’s not even lunchtime. I can’t go to the toilet. Please bomb us,’ he claimed the woman added.
I realize both issues being considered in the post are complex and not easily addressed, but those are what I immediately began thinking about upon reading this and wanted to put it out there for your thoughts.
–Dana