This is a horror of our time. No doubt we think we will never forget it. But what happened here for three years happened in America for almost three hundred. Honor them all and you will honor these Yazidi women and girls fighting their way home to themselves.
15
The men who did this should
be publicly paraded in their
own villages, then privately
executed.
be publicly paraded in their
own villages, then privately
executed.
9
If you want to bring down a country, rape and murder their women. And here, in the USA, if you want to destroy a country, denigrate women, sexualize them, deny them reproductive freedom. Many of our men, in congress, in the senate, are no better than these animals. They are all cowards.
26
Why the misinformation about the right to enslave infidels in Islam. The sexual enslavement of infidels is clearly sanctioned by the Quran, practiced by Mohammed himself and continued consistently through 1400 years of Islamic history. It was approved of by all major (and minor) theologians and scholars of Islam during the "Islamic golden age", which was also the age of the greatest expansion of the slave trade in history. Islamic conquest has enslaved more people than the trans-atlantic slave trade and slavery was legal in numerous Islamic countries until the 2nd half of the 20th century. When it was ended only due to western pressure. It was banned in saudi arabia in 1964, and then in Oman and was legal in Maurutania until the 80s. It is still practiced there. There was never an abolotionist movement that emerged out of the Islamic world. They had slave rebellions, and rulers would object to muslims being enslaved, but never in their 1400 year history did it occur to Muslims anywhere to end slavery universally. That only came from western pressure. When saudi arabia suddenly ended slavery, their reasoning was that only an authentic caliph could declare a holy war where slaves could be captured- that is the only mainstream reason why slavery is no longer legal in the Islamic world. But ISIS thinks it is following a caliph who declared a legitimate holy war, so their justification for taking slaves is hardly obscure.
29
Isn't it time we stand up for women in this world? This is a horrendous case but not the only one. Violence towards women is unacceptable in every case and is reported and discussed as kind of sad after the fact situation.
I hope these poor young women -- calling a 13 year old a woman is not accurate. These were young adolescence who have been held captive and violently tortured over years. These men who are perverse beyond comprehension. And should be treated to their own version of this -- perhaps that will set an example for others who think this is ok.
I hope these poor young women -- calling a 13 year old a woman is not accurate. These were young adolescence who have been held captive and violently tortured over years. These men who are perverse beyond comprehension. And should be treated to their own version of this -- perhaps that will set an example for others who think this is ok.
14
Concerning the indoctrination of children, this has happened on a very broad scale, and child soldiers, reminding one of Sierra Leone, have recently been used in battle in fairly large numbers, many no doubt killed, unfortunately but unavoidably, by the American-led coalition. The question of what to do about these children when the war, the one against ISIS, comes to a close, has not been given the attention it needs (the global battle against Salafi-jihadism will persist for years and years).
The Yazidis are devil-worshippers, are they not? Or at least devil-propitiators, as described in William Dalrymple's "From the Holy Mountain." But it is insulting to describe him as the devil. Their religion is quite nice. Malik Tawus, the Peacock Angel (Lucifer), ruler of the world, repented and quenched Hell's flames with his tears. Mr. Obama erred badly in his reluctance to use force, but his intervention to save Yazidi lives should be much applauded.
The world's scourge is Salafi-jihadism, not Islam. We mustn't let these savages define the religion. Centenarian Bernard Lewis on Islam: "Islam is one of the world's great religions. It has given dignity and meaning to drab and impoverished lives. It has taught men of different races to live in brotherhood and people of different creeds to live side by side in reasonable tolerance. It inspired a great civilization in which others besides Muslims lived creative and useful lives and which, by its achievement, enriched the whole world."
The Yazidis are devil-worshippers, are they not? Or at least devil-propitiators, as described in William Dalrymple's "From the Holy Mountain." But it is insulting to describe him as the devil. Their religion is quite nice. Malik Tawus, the Peacock Angel (Lucifer), ruler of the world, repented and quenched Hell's flames with his tears. Mr. Obama erred badly in his reluctance to use force, but his intervention to save Yazidi lives should be much applauded.
The world's scourge is Salafi-jihadism, not Islam. We mustn't let these savages define the religion. Centenarian Bernard Lewis on Islam: "Islam is one of the world's great religions. It has given dignity and meaning to drab and impoverished lives. It has taught men of different races to live in brotherhood and people of different creeds to live side by side in reasonable tolerance. It inspired a great civilization in which others besides Muslims lived creative and useful lives and which, by its achievement, enriched the whole world."
4
Would the NYT please post the contact info for agencies who are providing assistance, so we know where we can send donations to help them? What sort of support is the US providing to help the people who have been so traumatized? What can we do to help?
37
Saddam Hussein was evil. His was an apartheid regime, where the Sunni minority brutally oppressed the Shia majority. They attempted genocide against the Marsh Arabs, oppressed and murdered Kurds. He started regional wars, invaded neighboring countries, and at one time was most certainly pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
All of this is true, and it still was a mistake to remove him from power. This is a sad state of affairs, but still true. The region was and remains beset by barbarism. It needs its own Reformation, it's own Enlightenment, a new commitment to human rights and decency. Sadly, these things seem to remain a long way off.
All of this is true, and it still was a mistake to remove him from power. This is a sad state of affairs, but still true. The region was and remains beset by barbarism. It needs its own Reformation, it's own Enlightenment, a new commitment to human rights and decency. Sadly, these things seem to remain a long way off.
14
US needs to offer Yazidis "refuge"?
Not US! These women suffered because of US regime
change wars & systematic destruction of Iraq by US sanctions that killed 500 000 and invasion excused by outright lies about WMDs murdering another million people.
US birthed the extreme (and deserved) hatred towards West among Iraqis, that made it easy for extremist Wahhabi Saudi hate preachers to get to them, creating ISIS.
Then US proceeded to make multimillion arms deals with Saudi Arabia, knowing they are the greatest funders of ISIS and weapons will be transferred directly to them in a hope ISIS will spread further into Syria, prompting Syrian government & army to collapse, helping out with another regime change as documented in disclosed & leaked CIA documents & Hillary emails.
Should Yazidis now, after surviving such unspeakable torture because of US go live in the very country that caused it, to see on their very own eyes how ignorant Americans are about their regime change war policy and arrogantly call themselves "leader of the free world" despite this tragedy caused because THEY allowed it? Should Yazidis go & see how their kids become Americans, forgetting all about their identity for which they suffered and become similarly ignorant?
No. They are strong, proud women, they will recover, rebuild their villages, helping their decimated people to overcome these hard times & survive to brighter future. I wish them only happiness, peace & prosperity.
Not US! These women suffered because of US regime
change wars & systematic destruction of Iraq by US sanctions that killed 500 000 and invasion excused by outright lies about WMDs murdering another million people.
US birthed the extreme (and deserved) hatred towards West among Iraqis, that made it easy for extremist Wahhabi Saudi hate preachers to get to them, creating ISIS.
Then US proceeded to make multimillion arms deals with Saudi Arabia, knowing they are the greatest funders of ISIS and weapons will be transferred directly to them in a hope ISIS will spread further into Syria, prompting Syrian government & army to collapse, helping out with another regime change as documented in disclosed & leaked CIA documents & Hillary emails.
Should Yazidis now, after surviving such unspeakable torture because of US go live in the very country that caused it, to see on their very own eyes how ignorant Americans are about their regime change war policy and arrogantly call themselves "leader of the free world" despite this tragedy caused because THEY allowed it? Should Yazidis go & see how their kids become Americans, forgetting all about their identity for which they suffered and become similarly ignorant?
No. They are strong, proud women, they will recover, rebuild their villages, helping their decimated people to overcome these hard times & survive to brighter future. I wish them only happiness, peace & prosperity.
6
"Freed From ISIS, Yazidi Women Return in ‘Severe Shock’'
let's also not forget a eulogy for the men who were killed, whose voices also will never be heard again. in history, war for the losers usually equaled death for men of militant (young) age, rape for young women, and slavery or serfdom for both sexes who were not killed. war is hell.
let's also not forget a eulogy for the men who were killed, whose voices also will never be heard again. in history, war for the losers usually equaled death for men of militant (young) age, rape for young women, and slavery or serfdom for both sexes who were not killed. war is hell.
5
Regarding the last two women, whose children are being considered for adoption, I think the children should be fed and looked after by their community, at least until the women recover, perhaps months from now. They may want their children and the children certainly need them. The fact is, they didn't leave them somewhere. They brought their children with them even though they were 'emaciated' and extremely weak. It is of no consequence that the children are the product of rape. I think the women should choose -- when they recover.
12
while Obama sang kumbaya and encouraged thugs around the world, these women suffered mightily. While Obama encouraged us to have tolerance for the intolerant, muslim extremists ran rampant in the middle east.
7
All religious zealots are inherently primitive, including our own country's Christian evangelicals. With the dramatic improvements in science over the past few hundred years, humans should have evolved enough to put proselytizing religion in its place - the dustbin of history.
21
Today our big media destroying humanity by not exposing Islam to the world.
This religion cause of destruction of many civilization and still existing due to some rich fools and misguided intellectuals who are not exposing how islam destroying this beautiful world .
Islam destroyed Indian great temples burned knowledge of 5000 years .
Slaves the minds of billions who follow islam to destroy the rest of the world.
This religion cause of destruction of many civilization and still existing due to some rich fools and misguided intellectuals who are not exposing how islam destroying this beautiful world .
Islam destroyed Indian great temples burned knowledge of 5000 years .
Slaves the minds of billions who follow islam to destroy the rest of the world.
4
As of 2009, Iraq was mostly stable and Al-Qaeda was on the ropes. Then President Obama pulled all US out of Iraq and repeatedly declared "I ended the war in Iraq". The suggestions that we left (with no stay behind forces) because of Bush, or the status of forces agreement, or exposure of US troops to Iraqi courts were all permanently discredited when 5,000+ US troops returned to Iraq just a few years later.
No, the US troops left Iraq because that's exactly what President Obama wanted. He ran on that promise, and his supporters wanted the US troops to leave Iraq as well. What happened afterwards was not only predictable, it was predicted, by many. ISIS, at the time a small cell in Syria, a "JV team" in Obama's words, entered the then power-vacuous Iraq and took massive amounts of money and munitions, and even took over oil for revenue, and became a global killing machine.
There is no other sane or rational place to point the finger of blame for what happened to the Yazidi people than to Obama. Given the situation he inherited, a stable but fragile Iraq, he should have obviously never pulled all troops. The victims of that horrible decision are too numerous to count, but include every one of these poor Yazidi girls that went through hell on earth and unspeakable horrors. How Obama and his supporters who wanted him to pull all troops out of Iraq sleep at night knowing the atrocities that befell these innocent people whom they abandoned is a complete mystery to me.
No, the US troops left Iraq because that's exactly what President Obama wanted. He ran on that promise, and his supporters wanted the US troops to leave Iraq as well. What happened afterwards was not only predictable, it was predicted, by many. ISIS, at the time a small cell in Syria, a "JV team" in Obama's words, entered the then power-vacuous Iraq and took massive amounts of money and munitions, and even took over oil for revenue, and became a global killing machine.
There is no other sane or rational place to point the finger of blame for what happened to the Yazidi people than to Obama. Given the situation he inherited, a stable but fragile Iraq, he should have obviously never pulled all troops. The victims of that horrible decision are too numerous to count, but include every one of these poor Yazidi girls that went through hell on earth and unspeakable horrors. How Obama and his supporters who wanted him to pull all troops out of Iraq sleep at night knowing the atrocities that befell these innocent people whom they abandoned is a complete mystery to me.
6
I am extremely relieved that the Yazidi community stands by their women who have been victims of unspeakable abuses at the hands of the ISIS. I wish Souhayla and others much courage and strength. I also hope that time will heal their wounds. It is important that they don't feel ashamed of themselves and focus on their future.
Rape is a sensitive topic worldwide, but in Muslim countries it is even more of a taboo. I have read about the tragic ordeal of many women, who after being raped, killed themselves or fell victims to honour killing. Since fightings broke out in Libya and Syria, girls and women impregnated by rapists had been murdered by their own families. As an example: A Syrian girl who fled to Germany after being raped by a gang, was stabbed to death, ordered by her own mother.
Rape is a sensitive topic worldwide, but in Muslim countries it is even more of a taboo. I have read about the tragic ordeal of many women, who after being raped, killed themselves or fell victims to honour killing. Since fightings broke out in Libya and Syria, girls and women impregnated by rapists had been murdered by their own families. As an example: A Syrian girl who fled to Germany after being raped by a gang, was stabbed to death, ordered by her own mother.
10
What is done in the name of Islam, or other religions is appalling.
It is past time to abandon Bronze Age beliefs
It is past time to abandon Bronze Age beliefs
14
Is there a fund set up for contributions to support the recovery of these women?
19
Very well written article describing the reality of the situation for many Muslims not involved in the business of terrorism.
The most disturbing part of the story, other than obvious raping and abuse of the girl. Is the rationale by ISIS for enslavement of the Yazidi people.
"Relying on a little-known and mostly defunct corpus of Islamic law, the Islamic State argued that the minority’s religious standing rendered them eligible for enslavement."
These barbarians will not stop the atrocities with thinking like this, but the Muslim people could help if they followed the path of the Catholic Religion which updates its religion with Vatican I and Vatican II. Islam should update the Quran to eliminate some of practices which these Radical Islamic terrorists continue to hide behind as an excuse to justify their acts of terror.
If Islam would change just a few words in the Quran so it clear that the religion does condone acts of terror and emslavement of minority religions, the non-Muslim world would put aside the irrational Fears of Muslims which prevent peace in our world.
The most disturbing part of the story, other than obvious raping and abuse of the girl. Is the rationale by ISIS for enslavement of the Yazidi people.
"Relying on a little-known and mostly defunct corpus of Islamic law, the Islamic State argued that the minority’s religious standing rendered them eligible for enslavement."
These barbarians will not stop the atrocities with thinking like this, but the Muslim people could help if they followed the path of the Catholic Religion which updates its religion with Vatican I and Vatican II. Islam should update the Quran to eliminate some of practices which these Radical Islamic terrorists continue to hide behind as an excuse to justify their acts of terror.
If Islam would change just a few words in the Quran so it clear that the religion does condone acts of terror and emslavement of minority religions, the non-Muslim world would put aside the irrational Fears of Muslims which prevent peace in our world.
9
These women deserve automatic asylum in the US. The US created the sectarian civil war in Iraq that brought about the Islamic State; we owe these women and other victims a chance to live in without constant war.
27
Absolutely not.
On what basis? They were mistreated?
Is that the prerequisite we should use? If so, we'd open ourselves up to millions of people. Grow up.
On what basis? They were mistreated?
Is that the prerequisite we should use? If so, we'd open ourselves up to millions of people. Grow up.
This is so sad, and it's strikingly similar to what's happening with refugee children: http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/03/30/521958505/only-in-sw...
7
How can we help these women? Which organizations work in these cities?
17
These women need therapy. They are traumatized and their relatives are probably not in the position to give them the help they need. There should be an international effort to give them psychological help. Most likely they need medication, too.
We don't know what is causing them not to be able to stand or stay concious, but it is imperative that some qualified person help them, although the presence of their loved ones is of course also important.
What a disheartening account. But let's look at it this way : they have survived. The worst is over and there is every reason to believe that they can recover.
We don't know what is causing them not to be able to stand or stay concious, but it is imperative that some qualified person help them, although the presence of their loved ones is of course also important.
What a disheartening account. But let's look at it this way : they have survived. The worst is over and there is every reason to believe that they can recover.
18
I think for the most, we underestimate the brutality of the enemy and need to be reminded that there are things worth fighting for..
16
Dare we ask whether widespread abuse and neglect of women is accepted behavior as a matter of dogma held by a certain world religion? Well, let us think about that. Among which "faith" do we find - in this modern world - actual legal sanctions (including beatings or the death penalty), based on religious dogma, imposed on women who fail to dress "modestly," seek to improve themselves through education, walk in public without a male family escort, (allegedly) commit adultery or play sports? In what supposedly-modern "faith" do we find genital mutilation of young girls? The Christian world? No. The Jewish world? No. For the most part, not even the Buddhist or Hindu world. Guess which "faith" is left.
27
Before you wholly condemn a religion, especially one that has many sects with different interpretations of and emphases on parts of scripture, think back on Christian history. Were there stonings, beatings, burnings, shamings, enslavement, torture based on biblical interpretation? When it was happening, were there sects that did not participate? Were they also guilty because like the evil ones, they were Christian too? And how did it come to pass that the heinous beliefs were expunged from the Christian world? (There are still some practices and beliefs of "Christians" that you and I would describe as harmful.)
6
The women sound like they are exhibiting the symptoms of catatonia, a particularly severe form of depression, often associated with post-traumatic stress.
26
THE BARBARISM OF ISIS Is shown by the horrible suffering of the Yazidi women relased by their captors who are so severely damaged that they are incapable of functioning physically and emotionally. ISIS represents NO religion; it is, rather a radical terrorist group using a religious name to disguise its purpose and functioning. ISIS deals in terror, torture, destruction and death.
20
The flaw in our nature to carry out these atrocities is carried in our oldest genes for whom we are carrier, survival vessels.
The earth won't shed a tear when we extinguish ourselves as we deserve for all the destruction homo sapiens have done to the earth and its other animals and life. We are an evil result of our oldest genes genes surviving the randomness of evolution.
The earth won't shed a tear when we extinguish ourselves as we deserve for all the destruction homo sapiens have done to the earth and its other animals and life. We are an evil result of our oldest genes genes surviving the randomness of evolution.
11
I believe the sleep may be restorative. They may need to sleep most of the time for a long time with their loving families around them taking care of them and making them feel safe again. Above all they must not be forgotten. We must not let them be "out of sight, out of mind."
12
Thank you for this article and update. I have been wondering about the fate of the Yazidi women. All the best wishes to them and their families on the road to recovery.
10
The US needs to offer Yazidi families refuge and therapy. Their plight was caused because we needlessly invaded Iraq and then did nothing while it unraveled. And I’m not talking about Obama’s decision to draw down the number of US armed forces in the country when Maliki refused to maintain immunity for US troops. I’m talking about the Bush administration decision to invade Iraq under false pretenses in the first place followed by a disastrous occupation.
Yes Sadaam was an evil man. But the invasion destabilized the entire Middle East enabling the creation of ISIS. The leader of ISIS was actually a prisoner under the Bush administration and was allowed to recruit members while in prison. And then they released him. He is a Sunni and undoubtedly received/receives money from the Saudi government. Who are our closest allies in the Middle East. We’ve even sold them weapons they’re now using to devastate Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and the US are responsible for ISIS and we need to step up and help these people in whatever way we can. Of course it’s way too late for thousands of Yazidi’s and for hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis.
Yes Sadaam was an evil man. But the invasion destabilized the entire Middle East enabling the creation of ISIS. The leader of ISIS was actually a prisoner under the Bush administration and was allowed to recruit members while in prison. And then they released him. He is a Sunni and undoubtedly received/receives money from the Saudi government. Who are our closest allies in the Middle East. We’ve even sold them weapons they’re now using to devastate Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and the US are responsible for ISIS and we need to step up and help these people in whatever way we can. Of course it’s way too late for thousands of Yazidi’s and for hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis.
36
Well the rest of US are talking about Obama's decision to pull all the US troops.
1
Obama and Bush did not unleash ISIS, evil such as ISIS will always be lurching in the Shadows. Its unreasonable to believe or somehow relate this Brutality of Mass Beheadings and a Culture of Rape to U.S. policy. There is no need to justify to oneself how Evil comes about.
2
Thank you, Ms. Callimachi, for granting Mr. Taalo's plea to make the lives of 'those Muslims over there' (who are now more or less fated to stay there) visible to those of us who so often forget that they are people - human beings who feel joy like we do, feel love like we do, and feel pain - so much pain - like we do. Humanizing the innumerable victims of this seemingly endless war through journalism like this - putting names to numbers, so to speak - forces us to face the suffering of the oft-forgotten few who live through the violence as well as remember those who have died from it. The pain I feel reading this, the effort I will make to hold on to it, and the potential that others might feel the same after I share it is makes me feel I did something for Souyahla today; that this is the something I did - feel I can do - both embarrasses and humbles me, but at least it is not nothing. This article also had a resonance for me that stayed closer to home: as I continue to watch the legal, moral and social foundations of my country be ripped apart by the tiny hands of an orange megalomaniac all day every day, I realized while reading this that I dont remember the last time I was actively grateful for the (relative) security, freedom and dignity I enjoy here. Now more than ever, I think we all need to remember how lucky we really are (its a deep dig), and how important it to do whatever we can to help those like Souhayla who, through no fault of their own, do not feel the same.
54
surely compassionate Trump will allow these people to enter the US. Let's see what happens
7
"Compassionate Trump?" Surely you're joking. That man wouldn't touch a refugee with a ten foot pole unless it served his optics or his pocketbook. One of the many things this administration has already wrecked for the US in the eyes of the world: humility, kindness and credibility.
1
Where is our Pentagon and State Department in denouncing ISIS for its criminal assaults on women, its beheadings, its stonings, and its murders and injury of thousands of innocents. This is not religion by any recognizable standards; it is out and out crude criminality. Shooting drones is a cheap shot way of saying we are fighting ISIS when in reality we do nothing to fight ISIS in the real world of ideas where its duplicity and dishonesty are allowed to run wild. Why are the minerals in Afghanistan worth one of our service peoples lives when we do nothing to kill the criminal ideas that fuel the ISIS gang perpetrated and suicide evils? We seem to have turned into a war machine using ISIS as a prop to waste our resources and manpower. And why are we allies with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and other despotic nations even as we demonize Iran which seems to be a much more democratic and advanced nation?
Come on Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer let us quit war profiteering and really fight ISIS!
Come on Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer let us quit war profiteering and really fight ISIS!
17
We did this. We broke the Mideast. George Bush et al. Now ask yourself what an imbecile like Trump, who makes Bush look like he should be in Mensa, will do when he gets us in a tough spot.
44
We didn't break the Muslim world, it's been broken for a multitude of reasons. We're just foolish enough to think we can fix it by backing friendly autocratic governments.
17
A very upsetting article, you hear about the atrocities but when one victim tells what was done to her it really makes one sit up and realize the horrendous abuse and mental anguish these women and children were subjected to! My heart goes out to all the Yazidi women and children - I pray that with time, love and medical help some of the scars will heal. We in the USA cannot allow to to ever happen again!!!!
5
"We in the USA". Don't make me cry! George W Bush broke the Middle East and created an enormous pool of terrorism and dysfunction that the world will have to deal with for many decades to come. Surely you don't really think Trump is capable of doing anything other than make the situation even worse?
13
If you find this story horrific, I urge you to donate to an organization that works to help the Yazidis. An NGO called IsraAid is very active in helping Yazidis, including help with psychological needs, humanitarian aid, and resettlement, but people who hate Israel may find some other organizations with a little research. Please do give somewhere to help these poor people.
22
What is happening to them? Were they poisoned just before they were allowed to escape?
1
What happened to them is 3 years of sexual slavery.
7
Of all religions Islam is the most behind and backward in its attitudes toward women. Why for example do women have to wear head scarves and men can go about with what ever they want. Women not men are expected to show modesty. Why women only?? In the west this is the tip of the iceberg of the treatment of women contained in the ideology of a religion that non muslims see as repression of women. It is highly duplicitious to wear concealing garments over higly "immodest" garments underneath.
Isis is an abiration of Islam. I am horrified and angered by this storey. As has been pointed out the tragedy in Mosel may never have happened if GWB had not decided on his own to invade Iraq. Never the less Isis should be obliterated. Then, Islam needs to look in the mirror.
Isis is an abiration of Islam. I am horrified and angered by this storey. As has been pointed out the tragedy in Mosel may never have happened if GWB had not decided on his own to invade Iraq. Never the less Isis should be obliterated. Then, Islam needs to look in the mirror.
16
This is the Handmaid's Tale brought horrifically to life.
These women deserve asylum and all the medical and psychological help they need.
These women deserve asylum and all the medical and psychological help they need.
20
Very said but the rapists believe they are following Alah. Isis must be destroyed. We finally have a President who is not afraid to act.
5
Steve, President Trump has so far "acted" by denying refuge to these very victims and potential victims through his immigration and travel bans.
18
"These beliefs led the Islamic state to label the Yazidi as polytheists, a perilous category in the terrorist group's nomenclature." This is too politically correct, to leave out the fact that Islam itself spits on polytheism. Polytheists are unequivocally despised throughout the Koran, even more so than Jews and Christians.
Also the part about "the little known law" that allows Muslims to take polytheists as slaves. Muslims can take any nonbeliever as a slave as part of the booty of war, and definitely have sex with them. It's all over the Koran. It's well known.
Also the part about "the little known law" that allows Muslims to take polytheists as slaves. Muslims can take any nonbeliever as a slave as part of the booty of war, and definitely have sex with them. It's all over the Koran. It's well known.
13
This article, while undoubtedly well-intended, once again presents women and girls as eternally wronged but also ultimately helpless and listless, unable to fight back against their vicious male oppressors.
The writer here depicts Yazidi women and girls, released by the bombing raids from their long captivity in Mosul, as passive war victims overwhelmed by their horrific experiences, collapsing into catatonic shock once they escape the clutches of their captors.
In my view, this oversimplistic and unbalanced portrayal of Yazidi women and girls risks adding insult to injury, heaping further dishonour upon dishonour.
Many Yazidi girls and women have been fighting back. They have been undergoing military training. They are determined to avenge the attrocities that not only they personally but their kith and kin have experienced at the unholy hands of Da'esh.
Meanwhile, other Yazidi women have become spokeswomen for their people:
'Last December, Nadia Murad, 23, who lost eighteen members of her extended family and was held captive and brutally gang-raped by ISIS fighters, bravely described her ordeal to the UN Security Council at its first session on human trafficking. “The Islamic State did not just come to kill us, women and girls, but to take us as war booty and merchandise to be sold in markets,” she said.'
http://www.vogue.com/article/sun-ladies-yazidi-women-isis-genocide-sexua...
The writer here depicts Yazidi women and girls, released by the bombing raids from their long captivity in Mosul, as passive war victims overwhelmed by their horrific experiences, collapsing into catatonic shock once they escape the clutches of their captors.
In my view, this oversimplistic and unbalanced portrayal of Yazidi women and girls risks adding insult to injury, heaping further dishonour upon dishonour.
Many Yazidi girls and women have been fighting back. They have been undergoing military training. They are determined to avenge the attrocities that not only they personally but their kith and kin have experienced at the unholy hands of Da'esh.
Meanwhile, other Yazidi women have become spokeswomen for their people:
'Last December, Nadia Murad, 23, who lost eighteen members of her extended family and was held captive and brutally gang-raped by ISIS fighters, bravely described her ordeal to the UN Security Council at its first session on human trafficking. “The Islamic State did not just come to kill us, women and girls, but to take us as war booty and merchandise to be sold in markets,” she said.'
http://www.vogue.com/article/sun-ladies-yazidi-women-isis-genocide-sexua...
16
That's not weakness, that's dissociation, a very common response to extreme, prolonged trauma. Their nervous systems maybe overwhelmed by the transition. They need time to heal, and hopefully trauma-informed psychological help.
20
Point taken Jane but this is nonetheless the very real experience of these women. It's a story that deserves to be told without sugar coating, in my opinion.
1
There are many agencies or charities in place that are set up to deliver help . My resource is Charity Navigator.org. I'm sure there are others. There I can see what percentage of monies go directly for aid vs. administrative costs. I contribute to child hunger, women's aid, Drs. Without borders and a wildlife fund. We can help. We can't heal these poor souls, so deeply traumatized, but we can take some action. At the end of the month I have less in my account but I feel connected to the human race. We are all brothers and sisters. "If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." Mother Theresa
sleeping beauties. gives you a new angle on the fable.
8
Very poetic. Probably best for them, for awhile.
2
Stories like this have made me think that there is no God for women and children.
13
An unspeakable crime. Somehow I don't think Trump and his cronies would care about this. That's another unspeakable crime for our country.
4
If there is no money to be made for him or his family, he couldn't care less.
3
ISIS came into existence because of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a war that was purely driven by greed. And Americans still wonder why these terrorists exist, and why they hate the U.S. and other Western countries? It would almost be poetic justice that Trump is now president, a charlatan bent on squeezing as much money out of his position as possible before he is run out of the White House, except for the fact that his policies may be as destructive on the rest of the world as they are on the U.S.
14
This is part of the the price paid for ignoring genocide.
The international community breaks the vow of 'Never Again' following the holocaust.
It's time to look in the mirror; the international community fails to say NO to genocide.
The international community breaks the vow of 'Never Again' following the holocaust.
It's time to look in the mirror; the international community fails to say NO to genocide.
12
Couldn't agree more, Sam. In my view the fault lies largely with the "superpowers" - US, Russia, China - which have consistently blocked UN Sec Council resolutions backed by THE WHOLE WORLD calling for a prohibition of veto use in cases of genocide or mass atrocities. France is leading the way on this with several others. It's a simple fix that would allow the UN to escape the cave of impotence it's long been buried in and actually send peacekeepers to deter these atrocities. But US and Russia in particular are too self-important and afraid of each other' retaliation to give up their veto ... it's an unsustainable situation and a crime for so many civilians on the ground.
2
So much empathy for these women and all women who have been enslaved throughout time.
5
This is horrific. Obama did virtually nothing to help these people because he thought ISIS was the JV. Maybe the "Resistance" to Trump should be focused on the Islamofacists who would subjugate us all.
6
... " a little known and mostly defunct corpus of Islamic law " ... Really?
5
Heart breaking. Infuriating. Where's the secret plan to defeat ISIS in 30 days that the demon in the oval promised????
14
Your "name" disparages all women.
1
This shows the real beliefs of ISIS, which have nothing to do with Islam. They are interested in earthly pleasures like sex, as much as they can get. A lot of them use drugs and alcohol, which they ban for others.
And their ultimate motives are to get 70 virgins in "Paradise."
And their ultimate motives are to get 70 virgins in "Paradise."
4
NYT headline writer -- the sub-head leaves a lot to be desired: "... the cost of three years of sexual enslavement."
The cost?
How about the horror? The trauma? The pain?
'Cost' implies that there was also somehow a benefit to the girls, or that they had some choice in what happened to them.
The cost?
How about the horror? The trauma? The pain?
'Cost' implies that there was also somehow a benefit to the girls, or that they had some choice in what happened to them.
8
To the boys and men who adhere to ISIS - you have been infected with one of the oldest diseases known to man - bloodlust. Once a young person, or even an older person kills another human and finds there are no consequences, other than his or her moral compass, some feel they can simply get away with more killing, especially if they are encouraged by either a country at war, or by prophets of death that call themselves religious leaders. There is a special place in eternal hell for these monsters, and curiously, quite a few know it. The real damage is more lasting though. The victims, such as these girls, are a reflection of how humans can be so immoral and depraved, and such consequences from their acts. I can hardly read the articles about these poor girls, without becoming far too emotional, particularly since my daughters are this girl's age. The point I must make though, is that there really isn't any "cure" for these young men who have succumbed to bloodlust that we know of, short of frontal lobotomies. There is a solution though - kill, without hesitation or reflection, every last one of the barbaric former sub-humans and pray for God's mercy for these young women. Civilization will get through this one day or we all will perish.
4
Rapists and child molesters should ALWAYS get the death penalty.
You can't fix that kind of evil. You can only get rid of it. ASAP.
Sexual enslavers, however, should die slowly. And very painfully.
You can't fix that kind of evil. You can only get rid of it. ASAP.
Sexual enslavers, however, should die slowly. And very painfully.
5
Maybe they'll be wise enough to abandon Islam.
But probably not. Brainwashing is thorough in that insane death cult.
But probably not. Brainwashing is thorough in that insane death cult.
4
Yazidis are *not* Muslim. This is partly why ISIS brought about the genocide. They are seen as unclean not being Muslim.
3
Just as observational note to the Editors reading these comments. I just completed reading 373 which were the total available at the time that I listed this comment.
I paid particular attention to the Editor's Picks. What surprised me was the lack of inclusion of a single comment that dealt with Islam as a religion, or the practice of female genital mutilation still widely practiced by Muslims in a number of countries. There may have been a passing reference to enslaving women, but not one directly attributing this to Islam.
I think that anyone reading this article who consciously refuses to equate any of the horrific and unspeakable acts perpetrated on these very young girls with some aspects of the practice of Islam is fooling themselves.
As a self-described liberal progressive feminist woman, I am outraged that other like-minded tolerant socially liberal women do not speak out and call these barbaric acts in the name of Islam for what they are. And to you Editors of the New York Times moderating this piece, shame on you for selecting only the most scrubbed down comments that make no references to these despicable practices perpetuated on women by practitioners of the Islamic faith.
I paid particular attention to the Editor's Picks. What surprised me was the lack of inclusion of a single comment that dealt with Islam as a religion, or the practice of female genital mutilation still widely practiced by Muslims in a number of countries. There may have been a passing reference to enslaving women, but not one directly attributing this to Islam.
I think that anyone reading this article who consciously refuses to equate any of the horrific and unspeakable acts perpetrated on these very young girls with some aspects of the practice of Islam is fooling themselves.
As a self-described liberal progressive feminist woman, I am outraged that other like-minded tolerant socially liberal women do not speak out and call these barbaric acts in the name of Islam for what they are. And to you Editors of the New York Times moderating this piece, shame on you for selecting only the most scrubbed down comments that make no references to these despicable practices perpetuated on women by practitioners of the Islamic faith.
26
If you believe ISIS is Islamic then you know very little of Islam.
8
Of course, those who profess their acts are in the name of Islam, do not actually represent real Islam. So we are constantly being told!
There is, no doubt, cause for immeasurable outrage over the horrors these girls and women have endured. We, the world, watched their abduction, knew they were being grossly abused, and found we could do nothing to help them. They were abandoned by all that was decent. Being angry is greatly justified, but it does not help them. Unless the outrage changes something, they need our compassion more than our anger.
3
The situation is often complicated by the fact that many women captured by Iraqi forces will face charges as they joined ISIS deliberately at first. In some cases they helped to plan and carry out attacks and in other cases helped to manufacture munitions that have killed Iraqi and coalition forces as well as civilians.
2
Let's don't say "damaged" -- "injured" is a far gentler word when we're talking about, or to, traumatized human beings.
This was pointed out to me years ago by a very wise therapist, and the reframing helped. Hope is implicit in the word "injured."
This was pointed out to me years ago by a very wise therapist, and the reframing helped. Hope is implicit in the word "injured."
6
It makes one question the whole idea that "Islam is a religion of peace". Who can criticize a "religion" for it's treatment of women. ISIS is the extreme example but there are many others.
7
this is a major tragedy happened to these Yazidi in Northern Iraq.
we have empathy for them. Unfortunately, the Iraqi government may have the necessary psychological resources to help them.
we have empathy for them. Unfortunately, the Iraqi government may have the necessary psychological resources to help them.
The New Yorker Magazind published an article in its April 3, 2017 issue about a similar malady affecting children who are about to be deported from Sweden, titled: The Trauma of Facing Deportation.
Very sad for these children who face such terrible circumstances
And thank you to Rukmini Callimachi and her team for incredible reporting out of this war torn region.
Very sad for these children who face such terrible circumstances
And thank you to Rukmini Callimachi and her team for incredible reporting out of this war torn region.
9
US foreign policy has caused immense instability many times over since the end of WW2. Stories like these are the creations of this flawed policy. Hundreds of thousands of people have died at the hands of this policy.
American Imperialism and interventionism has to stop.
American Imperialism and interventionism has to stop.
5
This piece is written as if it's some startling new news - a "revelation" so to speak. This is the result of "leading from behind". This is pure tragedy the could have been avoided, along with the 10's of thousands brutally murdered.
4
It sounds like catatonic shock. They need to be taken out of the country and re-homed either in Europe, Canada or the U.S. They will never get better unless they can "escape" the horror in their minds. Their minds can't take what was done to them anymore and they just shut down.
This is the real collateral damage from the ISIL madness. Losing yet another generation to war and despair, breaking down a people by breaking down the women in the community.
There needs to be a type of "Marshall Plan", similar to the plan to rebuild Europe and Japan after WWII if you really want to stop this madness from spreading from generation to generation.
This is the real collateral damage from the ISIL madness. Losing yet another generation to war and despair, breaking down a people by breaking down the women in the community.
There needs to be a type of "Marshall Plan", similar to the plan to rebuild Europe and Japan after WWII if you really want to stop this madness from spreading from generation to generation.
5
This is horrifying. Just - I have nothing to say.
Please get well, and we apologize for the men who did this to all of you.
Is there anything we can do to help?
Please get well, and we apologize for the men who did this to all of you.
Is there anything we can do to help?
1
"Relying on a little-known and mostly defunct corpus of Islamic law, the Islamic State argued that the minority’s religious standing rendered them eligible for enslavement" - the so called law is not defunct in the mind of many zealots. The Pakistanis and their collaborators used this so-called law in 1971 to justify raping women in Bangladesh.
7
How can we help?
2
This has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with power, torture, control and child abuse.
Tragic for these abused Yazidi children.
I pray for their recovery.
Tragic for these abused Yazidi children.
I pray for their recovery.
5
Complex PTSD looks like this. I'm not surprised by their symptoms at all.
8
The scary part is that this evil behavior resides in the human psyche and manifests itself when conditions allow.
This is not an isolated incident. History is replete with numerous instances of barbarity by all types of people and religions.
Homo homini lupus est (Latin proverb meaning "A man is a wolf to another man").
This is not an isolated incident. History is replete with numerous instances of barbarity by all types of people and religions.
Homo homini lupus est (Latin proverb meaning "A man is a wolf to another man").
41
Certainly, we could find resources to make these women comfortable and safe as they heal...........and we should be insisting on trials and punishment of the perpetrators, punishing rape as the capital crime it is. The process will take too long, will not help these individual women in a way that is meaningful to their immediate lives, but must be part of our work to protect other women from these abuses and to address the rising use of rape as a statement of war. The world needs to counter that 'statement' with our resolve to enforce initiatives that put men who engage in rape as a political statement in mortal fear of their ultimate apprehension and prosecution.
2
Religion.
End of comment.
End of comment.
3
What happens to the children of these victims, who are children themselves, and their rapists? My heart breaks.
3
ISIS is made up of animals. Their religious and political philosophies are just ruses to cover a brutal totalitarian state.
They should be wiped out. Give Putin a free hand in Iraq and Syria. Let Russia get the credit or the blame.
Be real. With the exception of Israel if the Middle East magically disappeared most couldn't care less.
They should be wiped out. Give Putin a free hand in Iraq and Syria. Let Russia get the credit or the blame.
Be real. With the exception of Israel if the Middle East magically disappeared most couldn't care less.
4
Hell is too good for these "warriors". What a surprise will await them when upon passing from death into life they will find, not virgins awaiting them, but a cesspool of slime, sewage, serpents and a interior burning fire, that St. Theresa of Avila said, (in a vision she had of Hell) that was worse than any pain she experienced in her lifetime. There is no justice on this planet, but I believe that in the end, we all will be judged on love--Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist. It is apparent that these men abusing these women have seriously failed the test. Again, eternal Hell is too good for them.
1
These ladies who are sleeping for days, must become very dehydrated and malnourished regard;ess of their initial state. I hope they are receiving treatment for that, or they will die.
4
The naive, pc motivated comments on this article are outrageous. Anyone who reads this and claims that the US caused this, women in america are worse off, or that this has noyhing to do with Islam are a disgrace.
The US didn't cause this, although Obama pulled out too early. Women in America are better off on average than anywhere on the globe, especially the middle east, India, and Africa. And Islam is at least partly to blame as it's leader was a mysoginist racpist who called for the death, taxation, or\and rape of little girls and violence across the planet. Islam is not and never has been about peace. And what happened to these girls has gone on for centuries.
The US didn't cause this, although Obama pulled out too early. Women in America are better off on average than anywhere on the globe, especially the middle east, India, and Africa. And Islam is at least partly to blame as it's leader was a mysoginist racpist who called for the death, taxation, or\and rape of little girls and violence across the planet. Islam is not and never has been about peace. And what happened to these girls has gone on for centuries.
26
Mary, I get what you're saying, but when we destroy the social order in a country, we ought to own up to the chaos we unleashed. Trying to peg this on Obama, Islam, centuries of practice, etc just isn't right. We're better than that.
3
You are completely ignorant about Islam. And of course, the US destabilized the region then wandered away, leaving these women vulnerable to the chaos and despair that arose in the void of power. Read and educate yourself.
6
OMG, such suffering. Who will help these women?
9
This is too dreadful for words. These girls are in complete trauma. My heart goes out to them.
3
I thank the brave women and girls and well as the incredible courage of the journalists who gave us this story of absurd human brutality and misogyny.
The NYT constantly refuses to publish any comment I make against FGM – and the fact that there are 200,000,000 (two hundred million!!!) women and girls have been castrated in the name of ‘modesty’.
There is a myth this is a ritual exclusive to Africa. 89% of Egyptian women are castrated, as well as over 50% of Indonesian women, according to UN Women data.
And yet, we have Western media refusing to publish any comments condemning this widespread act of brutality against women and girls in the name of religion…
I’m surprised this piece was published.
The NYT constantly refuses to publish any comment I make against FGM – and the fact that there are 200,000,000 (two hundred million!!!) women and girls have been castrated in the name of ‘modesty’.
There is a myth this is a ritual exclusive to Africa. 89% of Egyptian women are castrated, as well as over 50% of Indonesian women, according to UN Women data.
And yet, we have Western media refusing to publish any comments condemning this widespread act of brutality against women and girls in the name of religion…
I’m surprised this piece was published.
31
"The centuries-old religion of the Yazidi revolves around worship of a single God, who in turn created seven sacred angels."
And just like the Gods of all the other religions and holocausts before, God was a complete no-show......again. Religion is a waste of good optimism.
And just like the Gods of all the other religions and holocausts before, God was a complete no-show......again. Religion is a waste of good optimism.
14
Is Linda Sarsour speaking out in sisterhood with them yet?
12
How come from the left and Islam we don't hear anythng about a day of rage regarding genocide against Yazidis but only outcries i.e. day of rage against israel?
13
Here, if you have the courage. Look at images of Armenian women crucified. See the sadism behind religious violence. I doubt that mainstream media can show these or put them in the print media. But see them we must if we ever want to hold 'everyday terrorists' accountable. And if we ever hold them accountable.
We've had millennia of horrors committed against human bodies, and people can't 'take it'?? We further these abuses by our cowardice and our privilege to be able to turn away and repress it.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT8YHJXpZQMIA1aVXN...
We've had millennia of horrors committed against human bodies, and people can't 'take it'?? We further these abuses by our cowardice and our privilege to be able to turn away and repress it.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT8YHJXpZQMIA1aVXN...
8
Give these girls machine guns and let them take revenge on captured Isis.
12
Devastatingly true, every ounce of the child taken to be shut down albeit embraced and truthfully shown by her family. The future will include the babies birthed in hell. May poetry take over.
2
Considering the Yazidi taste for honor killings, these women have no safe place to fall.
The issue is tribalism. It*s become fashionable in the West to elevate the Kurds and Yazidis as, supposedly, our better allies against those awful Sunnis.
But every tribal culture in the Middle East and Central and South Asia is full of this garbage, regardless of the particular religion or sect prevalent in any particular community.
Women are property--or more specifically, the use of their vaginas and wombs are property to be bartered and sold, cementing clan ties, preserving land within a family and keeping a defined social order.
These women*s lives are over. Their value in trade has been ruined. Check back in five years and tell me how many are still alive; how many have been married off to elderly widowers with ten children.
The issue is tribalism. It*s become fashionable in the West to elevate the Kurds and Yazidis as, supposedly, our better allies against those awful Sunnis.
But every tribal culture in the Middle East and Central and South Asia is full of this garbage, regardless of the particular religion or sect prevalent in any particular community.
Women are property--or more specifically, the use of their vaginas and wombs are property to be bartered and sold, cementing clan ties, preserving land within a family and keeping a defined social order.
These women*s lives are over. Their value in trade has been ruined. Check back in five years and tell me how many are still alive; how many have been married off to elderly widowers with ten children.
20
Which shows you know precisely nothing about Yazidis and their culture and how they have resolved to treat these women.
4
Saudi Arabia and other donors to ISIS should be required to donate to restore the damage done to the Yasidis and to other sufferers in Iraq and Syria. Of course, that should include our government and the Bush Cheney group who helped create ISIS by invading Iraq based on lies. These women have undergone immense trauma almost unprecedented since the Holocaust.
11
Words are insufficient. Though it is not the season, this best sums my thoughts:
Ebenezer Scrooge: [Having just watched the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim, addresses the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come] Oh, spirit, must there be a Christmas that brings this awful scene?
[Voice breaking]
Ebenezer Scrooge: How can we endure it?
Ebenezer Scrooge: [Having just watched the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim, addresses the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come] Oh, spirit, must there be a Christmas that brings this awful scene?
[Voice breaking]
Ebenezer Scrooge: How can we endure it?
3
We experience the pain of these people. It's searing.
We ask why. We are told they are sick. Just sick.
This is clear. Sick like Hitler, like Stalin, Pol Pot.
Again and again, we ask.
Who would kill a child? Anne Frank?
Nadia's family?
Who?
Why?
What was done to them? Are they human?
How do we understand this banality?
We ask why. We are told they are sick. Just sick.
This is clear. Sick like Hitler, like Stalin, Pol Pot.
Again and again, we ask.
Who would kill a child? Anne Frank?
Nadia's family?
Who?
Why?
What was done to them? Are they human?
How do we understand this banality?
2
This is truly terrible, but islamic based rape is not limited to muslin countries. In Rotherhan, England authorities essentially overlooked rape and enslaving of their own children due to 'mulitcultural concerns'. Western Civilization needs to carefully consider how to absorb immigrants, and at what pace in order to maintain our democracy and rule of law.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/opinion/multiculturalism-and-rape-in-...
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/opinion/multiculturalism-and-rape-in-...
15
SHARIYA CAMP, Iraq — The 16-year-old lies on her side on a mattress on the floor, unable to hold up her head. Her uncle props her up to drink water, but she can barely swallow. Her voice is so weak, he places his ear directly over her mouth to hear her.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/world/middleeast/isis-yazidi-women-ra...®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0#commentsContainer
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/world/middleeast/isis-yazidi-women-ra...®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0#commentsContainer
I'm a liberal who opposes capital punishment. But the treatment of these women has been so horrific that I would support the castration of every single man who committed such a rape so that he can never again rape anyone. And the imprisonment for lengthy terms of women who were complicit in their abuse.
10
This is a genocidal effort that has long gone underreported. Thank you for putting it front and center. Better late than never?
6
You must have been hiding under a rock to believe that this has gone underreported, or only watching/reading from selected media, as opposed to a wide range.
3
"O Lord, we confess our sins, we are ashamed of the inadequacy of our anguish, of how faint and slight is our mercy. We are a generation that has lost its capacity for outrage. We must continue to remind ourselves that in a free society all are involved in what some are doing. Some are guilty, all are responsible." ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL, "A PRAYER FOR PEACE," 1971
9
Articles like this one have the effect of making this anti-war, isolationist, pacifist, live and let live liberal into a neoconservative war hawk who wants to use every last tax dollar of mine to go pay the US military to get revenge and wipe out the perpetrators.
But of course, revenge is never a worthy cause, innocents get swept up, and it makes for bad foreign policy. Oh, well, I guess we'll just have to stop rubbernecking and get back to our daily work dominating the world as the superpower hegemon...I wonder if the Yazidis plight will affect the price of the US dollar...
But of course, revenge is never a worthy cause, innocents get swept up, and it makes for bad foreign policy. Oh, well, I guess we'll just have to stop rubbernecking and get back to our daily work dominating the world as the superpower hegemon...I wonder if the Yazidis plight will affect the price of the US dollar...
5
Religion, the opiate of the masses. And the meth of the fundamentalists, of any variety.
19
There really is such a thing as evil in this world. It's not abstract. It's not a religious construct. It is real and physical.
8
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. " Lord Acton, 1887
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it." William Pitt (the Elder), 1770
Religion, and the religious, are not exempt...
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it." William Pitt (the Elder), 1770
Religion, and the religious, are not exempt...
6
The perversity and brutality these women have been subjected to is difficult to understand while we here are safe and comfortable in America . Man's inhumanity to man knows no bounds , this is a prime example of a society unraveling , belief vs belief , and ingrained false ideas sanctioned by religious fanaticism , surely their seven sacred angels weep .
7
I urge everyone reading the article to please listen to the audio as well (The Daily). I'm glad I did because you learn so much more. The text and the podcast are complementary, rather than two versions of the same.
3
I hope George W. Bush is very proud of himself. This is what he unleashed on the world. He would respond to this, I am sure, with his famous chuckle and then a reference to his beloved mentor, Cheney.
23
This is utterly grim. And the worst part is women--including the mothers abd sisters of ISIS militants--supported and facilitated this abuse.
5
History repeat itself. Such atrocities by Muslims are not an isolated incident. Hundreds of thousands Hindu women were enslaved during Muslim conquests of India and sold off in Iran and Iraq. These very women and children ran for freedom to Europe whenever they got the opportunity. So, if you come across Roma gypsies in Europe, please pause to think of their past. The irony is that here a whole religion gives sanctions to perpetrate such atrocities.
10
Do you remember the very recent op ed by the mother of a now-dead volunteer for ISIS?
Do you remember the less than probing questions she reportedly asked him during his phone calls home to get mom's validation for his choices?
She's assured all of us how awful it's been for her, to have missed the signs of his increasing radicalization, etc. etc.
She is a British woman of British ethnic heritage (her article didn't make clear if she's Welsh or Anglo-Saxon), and she glossed over pretty quickly any examination of exactly who she thought her boy was marrying, as part of his ISIS privileges.
Every ISIS fighter has or had a mother; we can assume a very large percentage have or had sisters, aunts, female cousins, etc. etc. etc. This system of ISIS enslavement of "other" women does not exist without the complicity of "insider" women. Keep that in mind as your stomachs turn over the vileness of men.
Do you remember the less than probing questions she reportedly asked him during his phone calls home to get mom's validation for his choices?
She's assured all of us how awful it's been for her, to have missed the signs of his increasing radicalization, etc. etc.
She is a British woman of British ethnic heritage (her article didn't make clear if she's Welsh or Anglo-Saxon), and she glossed over pretty quickly any examination of exactly who she thought her boy was marrying, as part of his ISIS privileges.
Every ISIS fighter has or had a mother; we can assume a very large percentage have or had sisters, aunts, female cousins, etc. etc. etc. This system of ISIS enslavement of "other" women does not exist without the complicity of "insider" women. Keep that in mind as your stomachs turn over the vileness of men.
11
And there was Trump living it up in Saidi Arabia, home of Wahhabism , basis for ISIS beliefs.
Selling them arms. Just as Canada sells them military materiel.
Selling them arms. Just as Canada sells them military materiel.
11
Doesn't it seem possible that these women were drugged in captivity and are experiencing withdrawal as well as PTSD from the unspeakable horrors they endured? Isis fighters are known to use Captagon, whose withdrawal symptoms are described as "extreme exhaustion, intense feelings of dis-ease, headaches, increased appetite, and other disturbed feelings." Source: https://www.solacesabah.com/substance-rehab/captagon
6
Is this 2017? Or is this 1717?
First it should be noted that President Obama addressed the country I believe back in 2014 to try to help the Yazidis… but of course he was blocked by Republicans. How can Repubicans flout “conservative values” but turn a blind eye to this kind of horror? It says something about self appointed “conservatives”. And Sanders went on to mention this when he was a candidate.
Second, it’s not limited to the Yazidis! There has been a rape epidemic that has been happening in the Congo and Central Africa, it’s been reported repeatedly for over a decade.
It’s kind of ridiculous that it’s 2017 but for women all over the planet it’s still the 1700s.
First it should be noted that President Obama addressed the country I believe back in 2014 to try to help the Yazidis… but of course he was blocked by Republicans. How can Repubicans flout “conservative values” but turn a blind eye to this kind of horror? It says something about self appointed “conservatives”. And Sanders went on to mention this when he was a candidate.
Second, it’s not limited to the Yazidis! There has been a rape epidemic that has been happening in the Congo and Central Africa, it’s been reported repeatedly for over a decade.
It’s kind of ridiculous that it’s 2017 but for women all over the planet it’s still the 1700s.
30
Unfortunately, as much as I admired Obama - this is not completely true.
Several Christian groups were actually trying to prioritize the exit and refugee status for Yazidi and other minority groups in order to save them from this fate - but were blocked by progressive activists who accused them of Islamophobia (because of the preference of Yazidis over Muslim victims etc)
Ironically, many progressive liberals should share the blame of this.
They took the posture of the appeasers who denied that any violence was taking place against Jewish people during WWII...
Several Christian groups were actually trying to prioritize the exit and refugee status for Yazidi and other minority groups in order to save them from this fate - but were blocked by progressive activists who accused them of Islamophobia (because of the preference of Yazidis over Muslim victims etc)
Ironically, many progressive liberals should share the blame of this.
They took the posture of the appeasers who denied that any violence was taking place against Jewish people during WWII...
10
Sources please? I don't believe you.
3
Margaret Atwood was right. Everything in her books is or has happened among the human race.
18
My heart goes out to these women.
Sounds like they are suffering from catatonic depression (Catatonia schizophrenia).
Sounds like they are suffering from catatonic depression (Catatonia schizophrenia).
5
The world governments new what was going on, but did nothing. Sound familiar? The importance of self-reliance is clearly demonstrated. Treaties, proclamations, and UN resolutions: they mean nothing -- as the world powers act only when they view their own self-interests as threatened.
3
My question about donating has not been posted yet, but I've since found a link to one clinic (Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights) in case anyone wants to donate: https://www.jiyan-foundation.org/get-involved/donate
5
" Women" did not return. Little girls returned. Hoping the men that participated meet very painful deaths. Soon.
20
I've never before used a pseudonym when leaving a comment on a NYTimes article, but I'm doing so today. Proudly progressive and openly tolerant, I've been so caught up in the political correctness of discussing Islam that I truly fear how my words and comments will be dissected.
So many have already commented on the unspeakable horrors that have befallen these young girls, I can only add my chorus to those same sentiments, as well as a commitment to contribute to the relief agencies mentioned by some other commentators.
My husband and I have had an ongoing discourse over Islam. He has read the Koran and he's utterly disgusted with the many passages that condone the very behaviors touched upon in this article. I counter that this is not widely practiced, just some small number of extremist followers attached to 3rd century writings. He counters with discussions on current Sharia law and female genital mutilation, still widely practiced in many Middle Eastern and African countries as well as Indonesia. I'm aware that many Muslim and Muslim sect girls here in the US are either cut here illegally or sent on a summer vacation to their native countries to be cut. And I'm painfully aware that the practice of enslaving women is still very much alive in at least one Wahhabi practicing country - Saudi Arabia.
I say this sadly, until Islam adapts to the modern ethos of 21st century mores, it will continue to remain a stain on the more enlightened and civilized corners of our world.
So many have already commented on the unspeakable horrors that have befallen these young girls, I can only add my chorus to those same sentiments, as well as a commitment to contribute to the relief agencies mentioned by some other commentators.
My husband and I have had an ongoing discourse over Islam. He has read the Koran and he's utterly disgusted with the many passages that condone the very behaviors touched upon in this article. I counter that this is not widely practiced, just some small number of extremist followers attached to 3rd century writings. He counters with discussions on current Sharia law and female genital mutilation, still widely practiced in many Middle Eastern and African countries as well as Indonesia. I'm aware that many Muslim and Muslim sect girls here in the US are either cut here illegally or sent on a summer vacation to their native countries to be cut. And I'm painfully aware that the practice of enslaving women is still very much alive in at least one Wahhabi practicing country - Saudi Arabia.
I say this sadly, until Islam adapts to the modern ethos of 21st century mores, it will continue to remain a stain on the more enlightened and civilized corners of our world.
59
Amen, no pun intended. I am tired of MY people, Democrats, Progressives, whatever the label, being too timid to address this issue.
This is the absolute worst, of ALL religions, in the treatment of females. PEROID. It is ludicrous to excuse this behavior as " cultural differences" .
What don't people understand about the extreme abuse, torture and enslavement of females??? It's an EXCUSE for ( some) Men to behave in ANY cruel, barbaric, inhumane fashion they desire, without consequences.
Denounce the treatment, " moderate" Muslims. Vehemently, and repeatedly. Until then, YOU are a hypocrite, fraud and coward.
This is the absolute worst, of ALL religions, in the treatment of females. PEROID. It is ludicrous to excuse this behavior as " cultural differences" .
What don't people understand about the extreme abuse, torture and enslavement of females??? It's an EXCUSE for ( some) Men to behave in ANY cruel, barbaric, inhumane fashion they desire, without consequences.
Denounce the treatment, " moderate" Muslims. Vehemently, and repeatedly. Until then, YOU are a hypocrite, fraud and coward.
10
You complain of extremism, but say that mistreatment of women is present in "ALL" religions ("PEROID"). That's ridiculously extreme, my friend. PERIOD.
Christianity has had its Enlightenment. Islam has not had an analogue to the European Enlightenment and, probably can not in its current state. There is no supporting environment for Lockean ideas in current Muslim culture.
Muslim rationalism, as put forward by the Mu’tazila, and the discipline of rational theological discourse, kalam, have been condemned as heretical by mainstream traditionalist Islam since the 10th century. Until this changes, and rationalism and kalam are accepted by Muslim culture, Lockean ideas will find no support.
Muslim rationalism, as put forward by the Mu’tazila, and the discipline of rational theological discourse, kalam, have been condemned as heretical by mainstream traditionalist Islam since the 10th century. Until this changes, and rationalism and kalam are accepted by Muslim culture, Lockean ideas will find no support.
2
Islam as understood by modern educated women in places like Pakistan most certainly does permit and condone sexual slavery.
I was told that by the sister of a friend. The sister was a middle-aged principal of a girls' school in the Northwest of Pakistan. She assured me that men could legitimately have sex with female household servants, because they "owned" them.
Slavery continues in Mauritania, where the Arab ruling elite owns black Mauritanians, and children continue to be born into slavery and to believe that is the normal condition of life.
Muslims are like anyone else. Their religion encompasses many sects, many interpretations; there are competing and often contradictory schools of jurisprudence; and people believe what suits them.
I was told that by the sister of a friend. The sister was a middle-aged principal of a girls' school in the Northwest of Pakistan. She assured me that men could legitimately have sex with female household servants, because they "owned" them.
Slavery continues in Mauritania, where the Arab ruling elite owns black Mauritanians, and children continue to be born into slavery and to believe that is the normal condition of life.
Muslims are like anyone else. Their religion encompasses many sects, many interpretations; there are competing and often contradictory schools of jurisprudence; and people believe what suits them.
21
My hearts and prayers go out to these children and women who are survivors of horrible abuse.
7
I have a short list of topics that I just can not contemplate and live my life. The Holocaust is on that list. Torture is on the list. And This is on the list - the kidnapping and serial rape of little girls snatched from the safety of their homes. The voice in my head says, "This can not possible be," but I know it is. Tell me how to help. Sign me up. This can not be.
10
The Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights.
3
Maybe George Bush's next series of atonement paintings should be of these women.
20
Heartbreaking.
6
Some of these folks should be relocated to a ranch in Crawford TX and/or one in Wyoming.
8
Why, so these tortured girls can be abused by the Christian conservative fundamentalists of these states? What more horror do you wish on theses children, and why?
I would imagine that the majority of Muslims today would not countenance what ISIS has done to this Christian minority, especially women. Unfortunately it is also sad to say that virtually every Muslim majority nation oppresses both women in general and non-Muslims in particular, especially Christians and Jews.
22
Please show me one major religion of the world that is not patriarchal, which naturally leads to potential and often abuse of women in various ways.
WHERE CAN I DONATE?
2
I'm glad this girl is back with her family and I hope to God that she can heal someday. But I look at this picture of her at her uncle's home in a camp and I think to myself, I wish she were able to be at home in a lovely garden, someplace safe and beautiful and full of light. We need to do much more than the minimum for these people especially since the US did so much to destabilize this region. Just imagine if our military spending focused on healing these wounds.
193
Whose god? Your god? Her god? The Muslim god? God doesn't heal a body and a personality that is all but destroyed. It's doctors, nurses, psychologists, who have learned to restore the wretched of the world, trauma survivors, survivors of mass rapes. Show me where god is in that? where was god when she was lying there bleeding? why didn't god stop it? If he is all powerful, he could have. If he could have and didn't, he's a monster.
But I'm all for reducing military spending and building hospitals and clinics, schools and communities where people can heal. We do have trauma specialists but it takes time and gentle care for people to recover. Do we in the US have the will to fund these enterprises?? I doubt our president would go for it, now that he's cutting funding for any human need you can think of.
But I'm all for reducing military spending and building hospitals and clinics, schools and communities where people can heal. We do have trauma specialists but it takes time and gentle care for people to recover. Do we in the US have the will to fund these enterprises?? I doubt our president would go for it, now that he's cutting funding for any human need you can think of.
2
Thank you for a beautiful, sensitive comment.
2
To me, this article highlights the importance of having laws which define female human beings as persons, not property, not chattel, not objects. Every "she" is a person in her own right and laws need to reflect this. If there is one thing the west has going for it, it is this claim, shakily held and assailed from all sides, but there. It's only been about a hundred years since women were seen by the law as persons. Women are vulnerable, as are all people, and we require legislation that supports our vulnerability rather than shame us for it.
174
"shakily held and assailed from all sides, but there" Well said. Spot on.
2
Unfortunately, ISIS is not the only brutal and inhumane group using religion to falsely justify their actions. Boko Haram in Nigeria is another. Of course, history is replete with accounts of equally horrifying behavior hidden behind religion, such as the centuries long Inquisition and the Crusades.
Extreme religious beliefs provide the psychological environment and, I fear, ISIS will not the the last example of this type of mass outrageous behavior.
Extreme religious beliefs provide the psychological environment and, I fear, ISIS will not the the last example of this type of mass outrageous behavior.
95
Don't try and tell me the Crusades were all offensive and that peaceful Muslims we're merely defending themselves.
1
Don't blame religious beliefs. Think what horrors were perpetrated during the 20th century in the name of godless ideologies! Religion is just one of the handy excuses that evil and psychopatic people come up with. And with which they brainwash masses of people all too easily. Hitler was after all democratically elected!! Little by little, feeding ever slightly more extremist ideas one after the other, and this is how it can end. A dark example for us all.
1
This is horrific. One thing, though sticks in my craw. The article refers to her once as a "girl" and subsequently as a "woman," as do several commenters. She is a child, a girl. If it was a 16 year old boy, would the article and commenters refer to him as a "man?" This was and is happening to the developing mind and body of a child.
23
Please report on any healing efforts from medical organizations to help these victims. I am certainly interested in contributing.
5
How can we help these women and children? Are there any organizations working directly with these victims? I would like to donate.
5
When "religion" is used as an excuse for atrocities committed we need to rethink
what religion has done since its inception. Rape, murder, incest, burning, torture etc. have brought more hatred, confusion and despair to the masses.
Ignoring the fact that all of it stems from people in charge preying on the weak, doing their best to break the inner psyche of those they proclaim to be against their own ethics are deplorable. Perhaps trials and punishment needs to match their own atrocities. Personally, I say give them the same treatment they bestowed on others. Yet another part of me believes why at this point in time are most people unable to understand this has been going on forever in organized religions and cults? My heart goes out to these women and children hoping they will be able to overcome and use these horrors to become stronger.
what religion has done since its inception. Rape, murder, incest, burning, torture etc. have brought more hatred, confusion and despair to the masses.
Ignoring the fact that all of it stems from people in charge preying on the weak, doing their best to break the inner psyche of those they proclaim to be against their own ethics are deplorable. Perhaps trials and punishment needs to match their own atrocities. Personally, I say give them the same treatment they bestowed on others. Yet another part of me believes why at this point in time are most people unable to understand this has been going on forever in organized religions and cults? My heart goes out to these women and children hoping they will be able to overcome and use these horrors to become stronger.
8
Thank you, Souhayla, for standing up and being identified--and standing for the idea that shame for rape and sexual exploitation belongs with the perpetrator, never with the victim.
I'm glad that perpetrator is dead. I only wish his death had been more painful.
ISIS and their Saudi sponsors routinely punish women for being raped. I'm happy to see that there are some pockets of the middle east where that doctrine is seen for the barbarity it is.
I'm glad that perpetrator is dead. I only wish his death had been more painful.
ISIS and their Saudi sponsors routinely punish women for being raped. I'm happy to see that there are some pockets of the middle east where that doctrine is seen for the barbarity it is.
12
I began to weep during this story. It's unconscionable in the most horrific and violent way. Thank you Rukmini Callimachi for this vital reporting, which must pose great risks. Can you recommend an organization where we can donate to support the girls and women who have been, or are, enslaved, and to prevent such further atrocities? I feel incumbent to act in any way I can.
11
I am so distraught over these stories and my heart aches for these women and the journey they still have ahead of them. What can do to help from so far away? I know so many who want to give a sisterly hand. Looking forward to more on that.
7
These poor, poor women. Their poor families. Their poor children. What will happen to the toddlers, taken by the state? What life do any of these people have in front of them? My heart breaks just reading about it. What can it be to live it?
6
To the author: Please tell me if there is anything I can do right now to help these victims in their recovery.
7
In the face of the most horrific of circumstances it's a miracle that the body and minds of these women have survived. Reading the abuse they suffered it is understandable why their spirits did not. Their life force has been depleted, and is all but gone, but there is hope it can be retrieved.
Their story brings to mind David Chetlahe Paladin, the Native American who became an alcoholic on the reservation as a child, was tortured by Nazi soldiers in WWII, spent two years in a coma and was prepared to die, crippled and unable to walk, in a hospital. Like these women David returned to his tribe. There he was encouraged to "call back his spirit." He did - a metaphysical miracle some say - and went on become a minister, a healer and an artist.
With the support of their tribe may these women too regain their power by calling back their spirits.
Their story brings to mind David Chetlahe Paladin, the Native American who became an alcoholic on the reservation as a child, was tortured by Nazi soldiers in WWII, spent two years in a coma and was prepared to die, crippled and unable to walk, in a hospital. Like these women David returned to his tribe. There he was encouraged to "call back his spirit." He did - a metaphysical miracle some say - and went on become a minister, a healer and an artist.
With the support of their tribe may these women too regain their power by calling back their spirits.
5
Horrible. Now just imagine what the estimated 400,000 "comfort women" enslaved by the Japanese military during WW2 must have gone through. The duration of the war was even longer in East Asia (1937-45). And so far Japan has not apologized which is why the Chinese and the Koreans are still so angry about it.
8
I had a friend who survived Hitler's concentration camps. He went in as a young adult. He told me he survived by repressing all of his emotions as he watched starvation and murder all around him.
When the war was over, it took two to three years to allow himself to feel again, and he was able to do this because of the love of a good woman, a fine human being.
For those years, he existed in a state of emotional numbness. These poor girls and women need love and compassion from everyone around them.
They are maimed war veterans suffering from devastating post-traumatic stress disorders.
When the war was over, it took two to three years to allow himself to feel again, and he was able to do this because of the love of a good woman, a fine human being.
For those years, he existed in a state of emotional numbness. These poor girls and women need love and compassion from everyone around them.
They are maimed war veterans suffering from devastating post-traumatic stress disorders.
17
I cried as I read this story, but I'm at work so I can't be seen doing that and must stay in control. So I shift to anger--that's more socially acceptable--as I wonder how our former leaders who lead us into invading Iraq under false pretenses setting the whole region aflame--Dick Chaney the chief architect, George Tenet, liar-in-chief, and GW Bush the great enable in particular--feel about their terrible legacy. Do they have any regrets? Any remorse?
They may not have the wealth or power to make a dent in the vast harm they have done, but at least they can try.
They may not have the wealth or power to make a dent in the vast harm they have done, but at least they can try.
9
The criminal treatment to which ISIS routinely subjects women is a clear reason for the USA's population, and the world's, to stand against President Trump's isolationist campaign polemics. Clearly outside intervention is needed in Iraq.
Domestically, the plight of the Yazidi women also illustrates the dangers of enabling misogynist monsters and their "blame the victim" rhetoric. The photos may not be as dramatic, but the women's assailants' language can be heard not only in many of our courtrooms — where police, lawyers, and judges still routinely attempt to criminalize rape victims — but is also recorded in Donald Trump's candid comments on an Access Hollywood tape right here in the USA.
Domestically, the plight of the Yazidi women also illustrates the dangers of enabling misogynist monsters and their "blame the victim" rhetoric. The photos may not be as dramatic, but the women's assailants' language can be heard not only in many of our courtrooms — where police, lawyers, and judges still routinely attempt to criminalize rape victims — but is also recorded in Donald Trump's candid comments on an Access Hollywood tape right here in the USA.
6
My congratulations to Ms.Callimachi and the NYT for this column and highlighting the dire plight of ancient religious and ethnic minorities caught in the deadly crossfire of the civil war raging in Iraq and Syria. The Yazidis have been completely ignored in the Western media which has done a slightly better job of reporting on the plight of the ancient Christian sects. These communities are our last living connection to ancient traditions which pre date Islam and in the case of the Yazidis Christianity too. That they gave preserved their ancient religion despite centuries of persecution or marginalisation is in itself a testament to their faith and forbearance. The ISIS brutes drawing on their selective and extremist reading of Islam have caused incalculable harm to these ancient people. Even before ISIS, Iraq's Muslim majority routinely ill treated the Yazidis. This community needs massive assistance from the international agencies to resettle peacefully in the Sinjar area. Our Arab allies are silent preserving their resources for Muslims and directing their anger at Western journalists who lampoon their religious figures. Is this what the brand of Islam that they practice teaches them? How can any religious tradition condone this massive brutalisation of helpless women and children? Where are those crowds that show up routinely in the Middle East or Pakistan when derogatory cartoons of Islam appear but not when such atrocities are perpetrated on hapless minorities?
15
Let us not forget how President G W Bush started this chain of events that led to ISIS and the crimes against these women. If Bush hadn't invaded Iraq the very brutal Saddam Hussein was keeping that country in one piece. When is the US government going to recognize that they don't know best?
9
You readers, if you went through the article without an outburst of fury, a desire to see these crimes avenged in the most deadly manner - then,there is something wrong with you!
If reading hasn't cause you to cry - there's something wrong with you as well!
If reading hasn't cause you to cry - there's something wrong with you as well!
1
Don't tell people what to feel or how to behave. Don't judge others by your ability to reach immediately go to fury. Telling readers "there's something wrong with you" is what ISIS does when it insists Yazdidis are bad people. hat doesn't help. Join with others to do something. That is our responsibility as humane human beings.
4
"JV"
5
Once again, religion is being used to justify the enslavement of people. It goes on and on and on.
27
If a god told me I couldn't get to heaven because I showed my hair in public, I'd call him a moron and ask for directions to hell.
66
It staggers the imagination to think what men will do in the name of their god. This branch (Islam) of the Abrahamic religion is in the Stone Age, not
even the Middles Ages. But, then, the other two branches aren't far ahead
either.
even the Middles Ages. But, then, the other two branches aren't far ahead
either.
30
Rape has been used in war historically, god or no god. Millions have been raped in WWI and II, Vietnam, etc. some even by our American soldiers!
3
Not sure why so many here are blaming religion, it's like blaming the baby for making the bath water dirty... blame the true cause- profiteering individuals who use religion as a tool for furthering their agenda.
27
Sure, blame the profiteering individuals of religion, but also blame the blind followers, who don't think critically...or even think. They're as guilty as their leaders, thinking some silly god gives them the OK to torture, main, kill, someone thinking differently than they. No, They're not off the hook, the
mindless followers. And, obviously, with this theology, they thought they would benefit. That's the key word, they benefit also, the followers, with heaven, sex, money, status. Fools all of them.
mindless followers. And, obviously, with this theology, they thought they would benefit. That's the key word, they benefit also, the followers, with heaven, sex, money, status. Fools all of them.
9
Citizens in liberal Western democracies are inundated secular humanist messages to blame Christianity. Blaming religion, therefor, feels quite natural and normalized. It is ironic, though, to hear some (not all) of those voices now raised against Islamophobia. Maybe we should all just back off on "blaming religion?"
1
The desire of men to dominate using sexual practices puts this throw back of homo erectus into a class that even the lowest of species will eschew. The only way to eradicate this form of male dominance is to write into universal law a code for sexual behavior, defining the female as the ruling and dominant party in all matters relating to the vagina. The punishment for men breaking the law (religious or civil) should be emasculation. We could start showing our solidarity for oppressed women throughout the world by requesting our imperial leader and his progeny to set an example by wearing sackcloth and ashes while his wives draw attention to the plight of the Yazdidi women and girls by wearing black clothes for mourning.
2
This reminds me of a couple of rape victims I represented.
The crimes are real and horrible.
The women deserve all possible help.
Sometimes however, the "help" is not help, it only makes things worse for the women.
This requires a very delicate balanced judgment. It requires professional training. It is much like treating the victims of torture, including the PTSD portion. It is also like post-combat PTSD.
The best professional help tries to help them past it. That does not mean ignoring it, which is impossible. It does mean a focus on what more there is to their lives, and how they can move on to live again. As I said, it is delicate.
The problem I've run into before is that family and friends trying to be helpful actually make things worse. They focus on the injury to the exclusion of all else, and they in a sense block the women from getting past it. It becomes the only thing about them, all rape, all the time.
The victims in this story are subsiding into a catatonic state. I have to suspect that has something to do with the reactions of everyone all around them. Those trying to help, those loving them so much, are making things worse.
Get some professionals in there. Of all people I can imagine, these women need it most.
The crimes are real and horrible.
The women deserve all possible help.
Sometimes however, the "help" is not help, it only makes things worse for the women.
This requires a very delicate balanced judgment. It requires professional training. It is much like treating the victims of torture, including the PTSD portion. It is also like post-combat PTSD.
The best professional help tries to help them past it. That does not mean ignoring it, which is impossible. It does mean a focus on what more there is to their lives, and how they can move on to live again. As I said, it is delicate.
The problem I've run into before is that family and friends trying to be helpful actually make things worse. They focus on the injury to the exclusion of all else, and they in a sense block the women from getting past it. It becomes the only thing about them, all rape, all the time.
The victims in this story are subsiding into a catatonic state. I have to suspect that has something to do with the reactions of everyone all around them. Those trying to help, those loving them so much, are making things worse.
Get some professionals in there. Of all people I can imagine, these women need it most.
55
I agree that the victims need as much professional, and world-class, help as possible. This is heartbreaking. I cannot imagine a daughter being subject to this. Heartbreaking.
But, what about the perpetrators? Do they not exist? This wasn't some genetic force that reared up and infected these women, it was other human beings, poisoned by a radical theology.
When will we wake up?
But, what about the perpetrators? Do they not exist? This wasn't some genetic force that reared up and infected these women, it was other human beings, poisoned by a radical theology.
When will we wake up?
1
I wonder if the captives were unknowingly being regularly dosed with drugs and some of their extreme fatigue and other symptoms can be traced to withdrawal? I'm not minimizing the psychological impact, because I'm sure their captivity was devastating, but the similarity in fatigue and extreme sleep is similar to that of withdrawal from a narcotic or even alcohol.
23
Please read other comments. This is not drugs. This is psychological damage.
1
Incredibly brave women, much like the women of Bosnia who suffered from systematic gang-rape as an instrument of war at the hands of Serbian Christians during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
31
Speaks volumes about the righteousness of any religious state, Islamic or otherwise. Gods are in name only and merely a manifestation of those that worship it. All they really want to do is worship themselves and their own desires.
17
Whether it was the Russians raping 1-2 million women in a defeated Germany in late 1945, or the institutionalized use of Jewish women in concentration camps, or rapes by ISIS, we have to understand rape as both a tool of war and a spoil of it.
Rape is a power crime that women fear whenever brutality runs loose.
It's human nature to identify most strongly with people like ourselves. It's only through good reporting that we "get" the universality of human suffering.
Rape is a power crime that women fear whenever brutality runs loose.
It's human nature to identify most strongly with people like ourselves. It's only through good reporting that we "get" the universality of human suffering.
56
It is clear that you for some reason don't like Russia in general. Where did you get this information ? If i were you, i would provide information how many people Germans killed overall and how many people in Nazi concentration camps where people were burnt alive.
1
These woman have complex PTSD, resulting from the extreme trauma of repeated abuse while in captivity during childhood. Of all their medical needs, psychiatric treatment and psychological counseling is probably the most acute. This should be the focus of any foreign aid we can provide them.
57
PTSD, yes, probably. But I also think their bodies and minds are utterly exhausted from the struggle they've gone through to stay alive and cope. Once home, the adrenalin or whatever kept them going, finally drains out. With it, goes purpose, at least for a time. From what I know of extreme trauma, as one goes through it, strength may be found, as with the mother who can suddenly lift a tree off her trapped child, but afterwards? When the danger passes? All reserves are depleted. Absolute rest and peace, along with caring family to attend to them is undoubtedly what these young women need most, along with nourishing food and perhaps basic medical treatment. They don't need, not right now, foreign Westerners coming in to take charge and tell them what to do and how to feel. Maybe later, in the right setting, we in the West can help, but not yet, not now. Their own people, of their culture, are best equipped. It seems, at least in the case of Souhayla, to be what she's getting.
3
We need to create Worldwide Secular Ethics, to phase out religions while drawing from the enlightened ideas from all religions.
Basic things like: No killing.
Treat everyone with equal respect and dignity.
Do no harm.
Cultivate compassion.
Learn the meaning of genuine love and commit to acting in loving ways towards others and yourself.
No stealing.
Basic things like: No killing.
Treat everyone with equal respect and dignity.
Do no harm.
Cultivate compassion.
Learn the meaning of genuine love and commit to acting in loving ways towards others and yourself.
No stealing.
36
if you want to promote the teachings of Christ as secular; amen. the promotion is primary.
3
international human rights law is what you're talking about
5
Send this message to Donald Trump.
I wonder if there is any precedent in treatment of trauma in Holocaust survivors? Also, is this something an agency like Doctors w/o Borders can address?
16
The women in Bosnia suffered similar systematic gang rape during the Balkan wars in the 90s. There were programs set up to help them recover. Angelina Joli made a movie about this
4
No ISIS terrorists should be made prisoners, except to be interrogated to obtain information to anihilate the organization. And no individuals connected with the group should ever be pardoned, be them politicians, clerics or just civilians. And that includes of course politicians and members of US intelligence and military who might have decided terrorism was a neat way to destroy opponents like Assad. We have seen far too much American weapons in the hands of those monsters, and too many bombings in the opposite direction, against those fighting ISIS.
4
War is horrific. Humans can be so evil.
Thank you for keeping the human impact in our sites, NYT.
Thank you for keeping the human impact in our sites, NYT.
13
Yes, without humans the Garden of Eden we are living in would flourish and heal.
1
Many of the worst problems humans face are made far worse by overpopulation. For example, Climate change: Syria has an unprecedented major and young men who would have been almond or other farmers have had to flee to cities. Islamists are pronatalist and want women to have more and more children. The same is true with the religious right extremists at the center of the Trump government now, who want to take away birth control, of all things.
We must look to our own country to the roots of overpopulation, where the Catholic Lobby and Evangelicals are doing everything they can to outlaw abortion, eliminate reproductive care (birth control) and disempower women so as to dominate and control us. These terrorist/religious organizations must be stopped. And women's bodies must be respected. Religious or not, everyone has the right to the 'dignity' of their own bodies. If you're religious say 'sanctity'. If not use a non religious word.
We must look to our own country to the roots of overpopulation, where the Catholic Lobby and Evangelicals are doing everything they can to outlaw abortion, eliminate reproductive care (birth control) and disempower women so as to dominate and control us. These terrorist/religious organizations must be stopped. And women's bodies must be respected. Religious or not, everyone has the right to the 'dignity' of their own bodies. If you're religious say 'sanctity'. If not use a non religious word.
4
Bringing to light in a broad swath of media personal stories like this is critical to putting awareness of the horrors of ISIS and the general situation in Syria and Iraq especially into the minds of the public. Also critical at the same time is reminding people of the US role in the evolving horrors in the Middle East.
11
There is no question that the US invasion of Iraq was a huge mistake that toppled dominoes we hadn't even known about before. It is equally obvious that the precipitous US withdrawal made the original mistake at least 10X worse. That withdrawal was, in my opinion, driven by the irrational and unfounded faith that time can be made to run backwards. Ie; if the invasion caused problems, simply withdrawing in haste would correct them.
Any forsighted statesman would have seen the Iraqi government's lack of support at the time for the adolescent tantrum that it was.
Any forsighted statesman would have seen the Iraqi government's lack of support at the time for the adolescent tantrum that it was.
3
Why, oh why, did Congress let Bush Jr. and Cheney start the war in Iraq and the subsequent massive suffering and death which keeps going on and on. I'm sure Hillary spoke for many members of congress when she gave her reason: "I made a mistake."
32
I remember well the years after the 9-11 tragedy. The public was manupulated by the presidential administration. To not support what the administration wanted was made to seem unpatriotic.
6
Thank you bringing attention to this sad, bone-chilling event. I like to think that the more people know of it the better our chances that such abhorrent events shall never occur again.
What can we do to help those still captive? And what can we do to prevent this from happening again? We need to know it, and we need to speak about it. I like to think that publishing this story, as much as it pains me to read it, helps -perhaps only in a small way- to achieve this.
What can we do to help those still captive? And what can we do to prevent this from happening again? We need to know it, and we need to speak about it. I like to think that publishing this story, as much as it pains me to read it, helps -perhaps only in a small way- to achieve this.
11
Hello Mike!
I clearly remember visiting the Yazadi's when I was in Mosul in 2003. They were so very kind and very thankful that Saddam was no longer in power. They gave me a tour through one of their compounds and showed me some of their most sacred tombs of their religious founders. Many of them worked for us on Mosul Airfield. They were always very kind and very hard workers. I always had great respect for them. It has been gut-wrenching to read what has happened to them.
29
People who blame Islam for being misogynistic are at best seeing a kernel of truth, and at worst racist. In fact, of all the major world religions, Islam was the most progressive at its outset. Women could hold property, inherit, could choose their husbands, etc. what occurred was the dilution of these values as the religion moved out of Mecca and medina, and into the wider now-known Islamic world. Most people in the Islamic empires were not Muslim,m and were not Arabic. Even those arabs who eventually converted brought their own cultures (separate from religion) into the mix. Naturally most cultures in the world at the time were by today's standards misogynistic. We feel the effects of that dilution today, which so many westerners, who of course won't know better, not seeing the difference between Islam and regional cultures and the mixing of the two. It's hard, even for Muslims, so don't feel bad. Just know that Islam more more for emancipation rather than enslavement- so many sins are forgiven by God if the sinner frees a slave, yet their isn't a real provision for taking any. That being said, only the crazy would take slaves anyway, so these arguments are lost on many ISIS members.
I hope this clarifies who should be to blame for this atrocity- to be even more clear, it's Daesh , not Islam. To fix a problem we need to understand it's nature and cause. While we understand the nature of Daesh, most cannot determine it's cause.
I hope this clarifies who should be to blame for this atrocity- to be even more clear, it's Daesh , not Islam. To fix a problem we need to understand it's nature and cause. While we understand the nature of Daesh, most cannot determine it's cause.
6
You think Islam is not in any way to blame?... please explain, then, the legal minority status of women according to the Wahhabi sect that governs in Saudi Arabia. ... moreover in many sharia' ruled or influenced states women's rights are compromised -- sometimes in major ways. Also, slavery has been maintained via Islamic law well into the 20th Century (Mauritania is one notable case). The sexual enslavement of Yazidi women is completely of of piece with Islamic law interpreted in a strictly textual fashion.
Your are defending a religion by obfuscating very evident facts.
The proper point of comparison, at any rate, is to human rights law, not to other ancient religions. All major religions are patriarchal and imagine a male deity. We need to move past this as a species.
Your are defending a religion by obfuscating very evident facts.
The proper point of comparison, at any rate, is to human rights law, not to other ancient religions. All major religions are patriarchal and imagine a male deity. We need to move past this as a species.
3
You are white-washing a region and religion that has driven or killed almost all of its religious and ethnic minorities, and taxed non-Muslims (or killed them) if they didn't convert to Islam. My own family was driven out of Turkey for that very reason 100 years ago. I am not even going to go into the issue of multiple marriages, female genital mutilation, and women having no power of divorce or custody of her children if they do divorce under this religion and in this region. The fact of the matter is that almost all religions treat women as property; disrespect them as human beings; and consider them inferior to males.
5
I agree that what gets overlooked is that originally the provisions about slavery in Islam as in the Old Testament, were meant to put limits on what was previously a total free-for-all of might makes right. The religion imposed limits as to who could be enslaved, encouraged their good treatment and liberation, etc.
We in the modern western world look back at the first attempts to impose humane standards and feel they are inadequate, but forget what was the reality before that! We've come a long way because those kernels of rights took 2000 years to develop into what we take for granted today.
We in the modern western world look back at the first attempts to impose humane standards and feel they are inadequate, but forget what was the reality before that! We've come a long way because those kernels of rights took 2000 years to develop into what we take for granted today.
1
The savagery that human beings are capable of is truly breathtaking. To try to contain this savagery to any specific religion or culture is to display dangerous ignorance: in 2013, 170,000 Americans were raped by other Americans. Rape and murder are ubiquitous weapons of human oppression and domination--they happen loudly and openly in times of war and silently and behind the scenes during times of peace. The plight of Yazidi women at the hand of ISIS is an urgent and sobering reminder that the only check on human savagery is our collective responsibility to expose violence with compelling accounts and the maintenance of humane and just culture that responds in horror and translates into effective intervention. The difference between a nation where women can be elected to presidency and a nation where some women are systematically and openly raped is paper thin: the difference simply lies in our collective heads held together by the string of cultural and moral economy.
29
This article focuses on what organized, systematic violation- physical, psychological, social, spiritual-religious, and other types as well- can do to a person over time.Expected, as well as unexpected,temporary and more permanent outcomes to repeated trauma.For which there currently are limited effective interventions to "rehabilitate," to levels and qualities of functioning and BEING.Both the harmed person as well as their support system.Family and friends who can be greatly effected-hurt-harmed- as well.This very touching article also represents a reality that many of us are challenged with. Daily. Creating, and sustaining ways to be adequately aware of ongoing harms, pains, exploitation and inequities. A spectrum of levels and types of existing violations which what we permit, as well as not do to limit, can enable.Stigmatization. Marginalization.Dehumanizations,Exclusions. etc. Dimensions and outcomes of a WE-THEY culture.So as not to feel pains. Not to BE so upset that our own functioning is effected.Outraged,while not knowing how to effectively channel impotent- anger into contributing to effective needed changes.And in this dynamic,upsetting process,we often become myopic in looking and seeing.At times even blind.Willfully deaf and ignorant to the whole complex picture.Its people and their actions.Describing words inadequately transmit what IS.Who. The context.Just words. A photo.What can be done?Undone?Dehumanizing the violator makes us into…And THEY have then won!
2
Can one of the authors please tell us how to help.
It is so hard not to feel that morally our own country keeps sinking. We went into Iraq for the wrong/and illegal reasons; we left them in disastrous conditions and lay the roots for ISIS to take over.
Where do we start--those of us who'd want to help, those of us who do not want to be arrogant or condescending trauma workers who so often don't know the culture they are visiting. The young women, described as looking and acting catatonic--everyone around them as well--need help.
It is so hard not to feel that morally our own country keeps sinking. We went into Iraq for the wrong/and illegal reasons; we left them in disastrous conditions and lay the roots for ISIS to take over.
Where do we start--those of us who'd want to help, those of us who do not want to be arrogant or condescending trauma workers who so often don't know the culture they are visiting. The young women, described as looking and acting catatonic--everyone around them as well--need help.
13
The US failed these people. They begged us for help and the prior administration ignored the rape, slavery, crucifixion, and brining alive of these people. Air strikes would have saved them, save for one or two, we did nothing. To be candid this was a grotesque failure by President Obama: it is sickening. This young woman is just one of thousands who has paid for the inaction of the past President.
12
Not one ISIS combatant, regardless of the country from which they originate, should leave the field alive.
8
The slavery of women and religion go hand in hand in America. Look into how Denver legally supports the slavery of women, companies like Granite Depot advertise women in slave collars. A place where children are denied constitutional rights and law enforcement engages in systematic ritualistic legal sale of children and women. The egodystonic theology of the enforcement of law that only applies to patent holders and white male property owners while the world enslaves those who give birth. These are the same practices the United States encourages by keeping quiet about the slavery of it's women and children.
4
Words fail me expressing the degree of disgust toward these people who have done these things to these people...this is absolutely horrible!!!
3
I imagine a vision of a world in the dim future. A time beyond the realization that we had created our gods in our own image. And eons of rain had long since washed the stink of decomposed religion off this planet.
6
I see a lot of people advocating dispensing with courts and trials and handing out extrajudicial death to these monsters - which, from reports, is what is actually happening on the ground. And I sympathize (oh, do I sympathize). But is it really the right course?
Maybe these people should get a trial - not for their own sake, but for the sake of everyone else.
After all, breakdowns of institutions and of the rule of law are what allowed ISIS to metastasize into a state in the first place. Watching the rule of law break down (again) as the good guys (such as they are) roll into Mosul (again), I wonder... if the laws of the land aren't allowed to tackle the big problems, how will they ever get the respect and communal buy-in needed to stop the little problems from becoming big? The law will be viewed as something that militias with guns can set aside.
It seems to me that if this greatest of crimes is punished outside of the law, then nobody will learn to look to the law for justice.
Maybe these people should get a trial - not for their own sake, but for the sake of everyone else.
After all, breakdowns of institutions and of the rule of law are what allowed ISIS to metastasize into a state in the first place. Watching the rule of law break down (again) as the good guys (such as they are) roll into Mosul (again), I wonder... if the laws of the land aren't allowed to tackle the big problems, how will they ever get the respect and communal buy-in needed to stop the little problems from becoming big? The law will be viewed as something that militias with guns can set aside.
It seems to me that if this greatest of crimes is punished outside of the law, then nobody will learn to look to the law for justice.
132
Take a long, steady look at the United States. If a raped woman "looks to the law for Justice" here, most likely she will receive only more abuse- never justice. Her pain and suffering will not be acknowledged by the police or the courts or the people who are her neighbors. She will suffer blame. Stop pretending these horrors exist only in foreign places and do something about the epidemic of rape and abuse in the United States.
3
Been reported by Patrick Cockburn that Iraqi's in Mosul saw men on the streets who were reported as ISIS and released by someone. He speculates that they are bribing their way out of custody.
Souhayla survival is indeed an true Miracle.
Souhayla will regain strength & be a source of Joy for her family & all of mankind.
To the Savages who have brutalised Souhayla,hell fire awaits them.
The world is truly indebted to the brave liberators of Mosul,Raqqa....from this Beasts,propounding imaginary philosophies.
The peace loving Yazids have truly suffered a lot.
Parts of Syria/Iraq & Turkey should be carved up to give territory for an independent states to the Yazids & Kurds.
Yazidsthan & Kurdistan can become free nations where Souhayla and her compatriots can live peacefully with their head held high and pray to the true God-Ahura Mazda.
God Willing
Souhayla will regain strength & be a source of Joy for her family & all of mankind.
To the Savages who have brutalised Souhayla,hell fire awaits them.
The world is truly indebted to the brave liberators of Mosul,Raqqa....from this Beasts,propounding imaginary philosophies.
The peace loving Yazids have truly suffered a lot.
Parts of Syria/Iraq & Turkey should be carved up to give territory for an independent states to the Yazids & Kurds.
Yazidsthan & Kurdistan can become free nations where Souhayla and her compatriots can live peacefully with their head held high and pray to the true God-Ahura Mazda.
God Willing
14
The Abrahamic beliefs hold that the supreme deity who created (ie gave birth to the world) is female, oh strike that, it's the male that gives birth. The first mother is also male, as Adam gave birth to Eve. The first woman is the scapegoat for all "men's" problems and should be forever blamed, condemned, and controlled because she ruined everything for males. Bad, bad female.
All of you, get off your knees, acknowledge and pay for your own sins, stop taking credit for the work that women do (that men can't) and stop blaming and punishing women for your own inability to grow up and act like adults. i respect your right to believe as you choose, but do not in any way respect these blame-religions that raise men by giving them the credit and thanks women should get for building and producing every human being. If you create a human, you have a womb and spent 35 years bleeding to do so and you are female. You want a supreme being, base it on that. All of these religions pretend the problem is based in someone else's version of Abrahamism. They all are at fault. Women are the creators and mothers, no one else should pay for your sins except you (unless you are 5), and keeping girls out of the Abrahmic boys treehouse is a slap in the face to the woman who bled for 35 years and went theough excruciating labor and childbirth to put you here.
All of you, get off your knees, acknowledge and pay for your own sins, stop taking credit for the work that women do (that men can't) and stop blaming and punishing women for your own inability to grow up and act like adults. i respect your right to believe as you choose, but do not in any way respect these blame-religions that raise men by giving them the credit and thanks women should get for building and producing every human being. If you create a human, you have a womb and spent 35 years bleeding to do so and you are female. You want a supreme being, base it on that. All of these religions pretend the problem is based in someone else's version of Abrahamism. They all are at fault. Women are the creators and mothers, no one else should pay for your sins except you (unless you are 5), and keeping girls out of the Abrahmic boys treehouse is a slap in the face to the woman who bled for 35 years and went theough excruciating labor and childbirth to put you here.
73
So well said.
But "They [all of these religions] are at fault."
Really? All equally?
Sure doesn't seem so.
But "They [all of these religions] are at fault."
Really? All equally?
Sure doesn't seem so.
2
What nonsense blaming "Abrahamic" religions.
The world was no better off before the Abrahamic religions. Check out the status of women under Confucianism or Hinduism or the Greeks or Romans...
The world was no better off before the Abrahamic religions. Check out the status of women under Confucianism or Hinduism or the Greeks or Romans...
Those who create life are, by definition, female. And it's long past time that we recognize that those traits that make us human--intergenerational learning, community formation, communication, and empathy--are essentially female qualities. Those that detract from our humanity--aggression, violence, individuality--tend to be male qualities. We probably need, and we probably all have, to a greater or lesser extent, all of these qualities. But it's the female qualities that distinguish us from other animals.
I think it's 35 'weeks' however, rather than 35 years, of bleeding. Of course it's followed by at least 35 years of worrying and crying over the trials and tribulations of another human being. Women are far more reluctant than men to take a life at least in part, I believe, because they know how difficult it is to create one.
I think it's 35 'weeks' however, rather than 35 years, of bleeding. Of course it's followed by at least 35 years of worrying and crying over the trials and tribulations of another human being. Women are far more reluctant than men to take a life at least in part, I believe, because they know how difficult it is to create one.
3
Evil hiding behind religion....again.
104
They paid a high price for Obama "progressive" ideology ISIS came to power when Obama pulled American presence out of Iraq.
10
For shame, sjaco.
28
Read your history! ISIS is the natural outgrowth of the Bush administration's efforts to "avenge" the Iraqi affront to GHWB! If anyone is to blame for the quagmire and unjustifiable suffering of the people of Iraq, it is GW Bush and his neocon advisers - Rumsfeld and Cheney. THEY must be held accountable for their unnecessary war, not those who attempted to clean up the atrocity they wrought!
11
Unreal. You're blaming this on President Obama. Now I've seen it all.
12
It is easy to forget that mass rape is part of many wars, often neglected in the history books, whether the Japanese in China, the Russians in Poland and Germany during WW2 or in the conflict in the Congo. (This is just a few examples, not at all an exhaustive list.) War is often pictured as a much cleaner activity than it actually is, which leads to a willingness to engage in wars without fully appreciating their brutality.
97
Certainly you are correct. However, the other atrocities you mention, as terrible as they are, did not discriminate in choosing victims. There is one signification difference with "radical Islam". The sexual violence is aimed squarely at Christens.
2
Thus the phrase "raping and pillaging" as the spoils of war for soldiers.
1
Yes. War seems to be viewed with particular excitement by those old white male politicians who have never actually had to go to war (or their wealth allowed them to dodge it) when they were younger.
4
America for all of this nation's failings is still the greatest shining hope for a better world. Whether it be aid and protection to its allies or a fiery death to those that defame the very nature of being human. I hope they hunt this evil down and drone them, their families and friends, into oblivion. Yes I did say family and friends. If that is unpalatable to some so be it.
13
I don't think so. US has caused wreckage all over the world. And it's citizens have no health care.
5
Francis, sometimes I've felt the same: kill them, "their families and friends," too. It would surely serve as a deterrent to know that my own family will suffer, not just myself, if I am identified as a terrorist.
But then I step back and ask if killing someone for evil THOUGHTS can be justified. .
Better, I think, to punish for evil ACTIONS.
Otherwise, we have sunk to their level.
But then I step back and ask if killing someone for evil THOUGHTS can be justified. .
Better, I think, to punish for evil ACTIONS.
Otherwise, we have sunk to their level.
2
Most of the world, for most of world history, has had no free health care.
It is the western world that created the health care system in the first place, and the US that has been the greatest contributor to the scientific discoveries that have made it so successful and desired by the rest of the world.
It is also the country that, with other western nations, has spread the idea of universal human rights, a totally alien idea to the rest of the world, and the core of the conflict between the West and other civilisations, like the Islamic one, as seen in this example.
It is the western world that created the health care system in the first place, and the US that has been the greatest contributor to the scientific discoveries that have made it so successful and desired by the rest of the world.
It is also the country that, with other western nations, has spread the idea of universal human rights, a totally alien idea to the rest of the world, and the core of the conflict between the West and other civilisations, like the Islamic one, as seen in this example.
1
Go down the list of mass rapes by soldiers, then list their religions. You'll find pretty much every religion is there. If you're going to condemn them all, I'm for that.
73
We lessen our own guilt by blaming others. We humans are a complicated puzzle.
2
How many soldiers quote chapter and verse from a "holy" book to justify their rapes?
5
"You'll find pretty much every religion is there."
Really?
Jews, Buddhists, Hindus are guilty of mass rapes?
Surely some individual Jews, Buddhists and Hindus have raped, but where in their holy texts are these brutalities blessed?
Really?
Jews, Buddhists, Hindus are guilty of mass rapes?
Surely some individual Jews, Buddhists and Hindus have raped, but where in their holy texts are these brutalities blessed?
5
Heart breaking. ISIS is the most extreme example of a mentality that terrorizes women everywhere in the world. That mentality is alive and well in the U.S. as well. Sadly, it's not hard to make the connection between our chief ... grabber in chief and these monsters.
57
What nonsense and false equivalence. That is like saying it is hypocritical to focus our alarm on lung cancer, when we still have no cure for the common cold...
I'm having a little trouble, AG, with your comparison, which is not germane. Ignoring, minimizing, or denying the violence against women, minorities (Black and Hispanic women are doubly) discriminated against). Women picking the fruits and vegetables you eat are all too often targeted and raped in the very fields our crops are grown on. Nope, your denials ring hollow.
1
Sometimes I wonder why the U.S government supports countries that are so abusive to their women.
22
"Sometimes I wonder why the U.S government supports countries that are so abusive to their women."
What are you talking about! If you are going to make such an stupid statement how about few examples. Are you really saying the US supports ISIS.
I can't believe your idiotic statement actually got several recommendations!
Out in the CA sun too long, I think...
What are you talking about! If you are going to make such an stupid statement how about few examples. Are you really saying the US supports ISIS.
I can't believe your idiotic statement actually got several recommendations!
Out in the CA sun too long, I think...
2
The US can't police the world. If the US were to take action against every country that doesn't have the same freedom for women that it does, it would have to cut off relations with most of the world.
That's a dodge and it's clear that we could be doing so much more if we weren't focused on shoveling money to the wealthy in the USA. One of the reasons we have Trump in office is because she would have insisted that abuses against women were human rights. Putin is a misogynist, too, and HRC called him out for his dictatorial rule in Russia. Putin also relaxed laws that protected women from domestic abuse. Do we see a thread here? Two arch-misogynists are using violence against women, denying our equal human rights, to ruin the USA's democracy and turn it into a Kleptocracy.
2
We are seeing some of the depravity of religious fanatic (jihadists) criminals, apparently without the necessary urgency and expected outcry of the very folks following the dictates of the Koran, ordinary Muslims. This inhumanity is painful to watch, let alone for those that suffer the consequences of an abusive cadre of dogmatic misfits using religion for their nefarious ends, supposedly in the name of an all-loving god. These scoundrels, shameless as they are, and dogmatic to the end, deserve to be eliminated so those that appreciate the joys of being alive, have a chance. Although it's true we act mostly on our emotions (and use reason just to justify what we've done, or not), why is it we still act 'tribal' (all, even sacrifice, for us; nothing, and even destruction for 'the others') in this day and age? Does our mind, supposedly the most marvelous organ in the universe, not know 'right from wrong' anymore?
12
I hear a lot of outcry against this sort of things by peaceful loving ordinary Muslims. Maybe stop listening to Fox News and other rightwing yellow journalism, and you'll hear more.
5
You just described our Congress.
3
Are you talking about the Christian Religious Right? Go watch the movie, "Jesus Camp" to see children beaten, persecuted, killed. That's for starters. Then there's the raping of children, mostly in Catholic Churches by pedophile priests, but also by Protestant ministers. Go watch the movie "Spotlight". They both target and malign LGBT persons, who are specially targeted by our own goons. Read about the religious violence against transgender people.
Be fair, look to your own country's wrongdoing.
Be fair, look to your own country's wrongdoing.
Once again the NYTimes feels the need to distance these actions from Islam ("a little-known and mostly defunct corpus of Islamic law") and while I have little doubt that the majority of the world's Muslims find ISIS' rape theology reprehensible, I also have little doubt that the conditions that give rise to it—the absolute acceptance of religious law above any reason, and the second-class status of women—are widespread throughout the Islamic world.
68
Kim - remember that the NYT actually postured itself AGAINST prioritizing the exit and expedient refugee status for Christians, Yazidi, and other local religious minorities - despite knowing these were the consequences...
The American media and many 'progressive liberals' are very much to blame - as these girls and women could have been spared.
This is the truth and I hope they NYT has the integrity to publish it.
The American media and many 'progressive liberals' are very much to blame - as these girls and women could have been spared.
This is the truth and I hope they NYT has the integrity to publish it.
1
Devastating. The experiences documented here echo the phenomenon written about in this article by Rachel Aviv: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/the-trauma-of-facing-deport...
16
Take the utterings of a 7th century tribal witch doctor who heard voices in his head. Add in the beliefs of tribal pagan nomads. Mix in the writings of people who lived with the witch doctor and jotted down everything he did. Shake for 1,300 years. What do you get? ISIS
39
You forgot one important ingredient: the endless capacity of men for cruelty. It is the same ingredient present for thousands of years of barbarism, and that includes our own very well educated westerners, the Germans during WWII.
The problem of this planet is MEN. Not religion, not economy. IT IS MEN. We need to return to matriarchal cultures or perish.
The problem of this planet is MEN. Not religion, not economy. IT IS MEN. We need to return to matriarchal cultures or perish.
9
I thought you were going to say Christianity and Judaism before it. Why are we told to worship a blood-thirsty bronze-age deity who rode off to war in the OT on the side of the Jews. And Christians are likely to wear an instrument of torture and murder, the cross, around their necks to prove that they are 'saved'.
Religious violence and the Abrahamic are steeped in blood. And the blood lust continues today. I'll have none of it.
Religious violence and the Abrahamic are steeped in blood. And the blood lust continues today. I'll have none of it.
2
I'm a feminist and I disagree with this. You can't blame one whole gender. I'm not ready to substitute matriarchy for patriarchy. Better to become a secular humanist and have equality of the sexes as our goal. Look up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
HRC was and is Christian but at least she had the 'temerity' to suggest that violence against women is a human rights issue. Time to make the rest of the planet realize that when we harm women, we harm ourselves.
HRC was and is Christian but at least she had the 'temerity' to suggest that violence against women is a human rights issue. Time to make the rest of the planet realize that when we harm women, we harm ourselves.
46
This is so incredibly sad. Are there any charities that help women who have gone through sexual captivity like this?
21
Women for Women International helps Syrian and Yazidi women impacted by war in the region. In addition to skills trainings, they are provided with psychosocial therapy. http://www.womenforwomen.org/what-we-do/countries/iraq
2
"Relying on a little-known and mostly defunct corpus of Islamic law, the Islamic state argued that the minority's religious standing rendered them eligible for enslavement."
I have a lot of admiration for Rukmini Callimachi's willingness to report on the atrocities committed by ISIS against Yazidi girls, but I am disappointed that she put that statement in her article. The Koran has many verses that permit Muslims to have sexual intercourse with infidel women taken as booty during jihad, such as Koran 4:24. These captives are referred to as "those whom your right hand possesses" in the Koran, which Muslims believe is the perfect book containing instructions for Muslims for all eternity. There is also the example of their Prophet Muhammad who owned and traded slaves, including women. There is nothing defunct about either of these.
Again, I commend Rukmini for going where other reporters fear to tread for being accused of Islamophobia, but I am disappointed by that sentence.
I have a lot of admiration for Rukmini Callimachi's willingness to report on the atrocities committed by ISIS against Yazidi girls, but I am disappointed that she put that statement in her article. The Koran has many verses that permit Muslims to have sexual intercourse with infidel women taken as booty during jihad, such as Koran 4:24. These captives are referred to as "those whom your right hand possesses" in the Koran, which Muslims believe is the perfect book containing instructions for Muslims for all eternity. There is also the example of their Prophet Muhammad who owned and traded slaves, including women. There is nothing defunct about either of these.
Again, I commend Rukmini for going where other reporters fear to tread for being accused of Islamophobia, but I am disappointed by that sentence.
111
And yet you have not presented any video evidence that the statement is incorrect. The passages you cite and the historical example from the 7h? 8th? Century do not refute her point.
2
To be fair to the author, she isn't sweeping the dark side of Islam under the rug; she acknowledges that the sexual enslavement is inspired by a Koranic verse; now, to characterize that verse as "defunct" puts her at risk of being called "apostate" by a Muslim for suggesting that any part of the Koran is defunct. That is a risky thing to do. Remember Charlie Hebdo.
Islam needs to be purged of all that is "defunct," all of it that is mired in pre-feudal consciousness; it would be interesting to read a de-natured version of Islam, kind of like Thomas Jefferson's select pickings of verse from the New Testament text which focuses on Jesus' humanity.
I know there is some humanity embedded in Koranic verse; this is what Islam should celebrate.
Islam needs to be purged of all that is "defunct," all of it that is mired in pre-feudal consciousness; it would be interesting to read a de-natured version of Islam, kind of like Thomas Jefferson's select pickings of verse from the New Testament text which focuses on Jesus' humanity.
I know there is some humanity embedded in Koranic verse; this is what Islam should celebrate.
2
I'm sure if you examine the bible, you would find instances of rape and slavery but that does not reflect on Christianity. Nor does the slave trade that early USA practiced reflect on modern America.
1
Unspeakable unimaginable horror. And these terrorists are serving Allah?
12
Just goes to show how religion in general is a bad idea.
Because it is largely to wholly based on fantasy, one can make up justifications for any and all abuses in the name of 'god'.
Because it is largely to wholly based on fantasy, one can make up justifications for any and all abuses in the name of 'god'.
76
On the contrary, the great novelty of the monotheistic religions was that they introduced the notion of "social justice" to a world in which the operative rule was "might makes right".
Just starting off with the notion that there was a God who cared about the poor, the widow, the orphan, and required charity towards them, was revolutionary. So were limits being placed on just how badly you could treat any class of people (e.g., "an eye for a eye" was meant to liit revenge to something proportional, not death or torture for an eye, just an eye...
That was the kernel that started us off on the road to our modern conceptions of justice and human rights...
Just starting off with the notion that there was a God who cared about the poor, the widow, the orphan, and required charity towards them, was revolutionary. So were limits being placed on just how badly you could treat any class of people (e.g., "an eye for a eye" was meant to liit revenge to something proportional, not death or torture for an eye, just an eye...
That was the kernel that started us off on the road to our modern conceptions of justice and human rights...
1
You may not know but ethics were first propounded by the ancient Greek philosophers. And in the East it was Confucianism and one Mencius in China who advocated against war and slaughter and rape. In India it was king Ashoka who after a lifetime of war and killing realized that we must live in peace.
Monotheism has little to recommend it, particularly in Christianity which actually has three gods, the Trinity, and no rational way to describe how this is not polytheism.
Monotheism has little to recommend it, particularly in Christianity which actually has three gods, the Trinity, and no rational way to describe how this is not polytheism.
These stories need to be spread far and wide so everyone knows what these sub-human monsters are all about. To think that naive young women from Europe have traveled to Syria to join ISIS is simply mind boggling.
Best of luck to these unfortunate, brave, women in their long and painful recovery.
Best of luck to these unfortunate, brave, women in their long and painful recovery.
32
My heart weeps for these girls, the entire yazidi community.
There could be outrage in US and Europe regarding these inhuman acts in the name of Islam. But, I dont see any outrage coming from muslim countries. None of the newspapers or media from the muslim countries even mention this barbarism.
In Pakistan thousands of hindu girls are kidnapped every year and forced into marriage by the muslim captors and religious conversions. The courts side with the captors, in the name of religion. The foreign offices of the western countries collude and condone with these countries
There could be outrage in US and Europe regarding these inhuman acts in the name of Islam. But, I dont see any outrage coming from muslim countries. None of the newspapers or media from the muslim countries even mention this barbarism.
In Pakistan thousands of hindu girls are kidnapped every year and forced into marriage by the muslim captors and religious conversions. The courts side with the captors, in the name of religion. The foreign offices of the western countries collude and condone with these countries
52
I presume we don't see outrage because the moderate, humanitarian Muslim is a minority in the Muslim community and would be at risk of assassination by knife or acid if they stood up and denounced any segment of the Koran; they are afraid of their own community. I am not a Muslim and I am afraid of these people. You would be a fool not to be afraid.
We need a worldwide movement that elevates human rights above all and subjects feudal, barabric acts to criminal justice.
We need a worldwide movement that elevates human rights above all and subjects feudal, barabric acts to criminal justice.
4
Beyond culture or belief systems lies a primitive, age old human obsession with control. Control of bodies, control of minds, control of "the other". Control especially of women. Civilization has modified the way in which that primitive urge is manifested - what is acceptable or unacceptable to subject another human being to - but make no mistake, the urge to command complete submission of others, has not been extinguished. ISIS, with it's apparently insatiable urge to subjugate and inflict humiliation, manifests a particularly ugly face of that primitive urge to control. But the lesson would be lost if all we come away with from this article is a desire to see them eradicated. A more pertinent takeaway question: where is pernicious control manifesting in my society today?
36
"Pernicious control" is manifested in every state in the US that has passed laws making it more and more difficult for women to exercise control over their own bodies by making abortion something that only middle class and rich women have access to. And just this morning the President has said that anti-discrimination laws do not apply to sexual orientation on the job, so you can be fired at will because you aren't conformable to social norms. In many ways small yet obvious society seeks to control and oppress particular members because it assumes that only the majority knows what is "the right." The very awful situation of Yazidi women is the far right manifestation on the curve of behaviors that displays societal "control."
5
The notion that the authorization of slavery is "little known" and "largely defunct" to Islam is an egregious whitewashing of both history and modernity for the sake of timid liberal sensitivities.
Barely over a decade ago Saleh Al-Fawzan, a member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, reaffirmed that “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam." This is but one example among countless. To this day Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca, has a huge industry of involuntary servitude as documented by the US State Department.
To only ever write about the symptoms of radical Islamic doctrine - slavery being one example - is to willfully skirt the real issue which is a "modern" religion that refuses to fully divest elements of barbaric doctrine.
The organized and sanctioned abuse of these poor girls is not some invention, it is merely another chapter in an ongoing story of subjugation and brutality, all backed up by fatwa upon fatwa.
Barely over a decade ago Saleh Al-Fawzan, a member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, reaffirmed that “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam." This is but one example among countless. To this day Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca, has a huge industry of involuntary servitude as documented by the US State Department.
To only ever write about the symptoms of radical Islamic doctrine - slavery being one example - is to willfully skirt the real issue which is a "modern" religion that refuses to fully divest elements of barbaric doctrine.
The organized and sanctioned abuse of these poor girls is not some invention, it is merely another chapter in an ongoing story of subjugation and brutality, all backed up by fatwa upon fatwa.
121
I thought maybe, just maybe, this story might be so singularly horrific that we wouldn't get the chorus of "Oh, look at what Christian religions have done" and "It happens here in the United States too." But no. Of course there are a few people so desperate to score politically correct points that they would use the unique suffering of these women and girls to deflect blame from the perpetrators and forward their own agenda.
26
This isn't about "scoring points" or "political correctness". This is not about anyone's "agenda". This is about pointing out the horrible oppression of women in the United States, which people like you refuse to acknowledge.
2
All I can do is weep uncontrollably for the pain and suffering of these women and girls. Whether it is the Middle East or the Americas , men are killing us all They have no humanity left in them, no matter what their supposed religion or politics or indifference
40
Not all men are like that but I agree that this is a major problem.
1
Most yes this is true.
And many of their women applaud them. Women brought up in the western world go and join them to help "the cause". Just as women in all societies raise their men to be warriors in support of their own group, and make allowances for their "special needs" and for appropriate rewards for their "sacrifices"...
1
Since Yazidism is a ancient Mesopotamian combination of Christianity and Judaism, aren't there enough rich Christian's and Jews in America that can reach out and help the devastated Yazidis? How's about a simple relocation into a safer area within Kurdistan? There's cheap housing there and they can get proper medical treatment and a arrangement made for desperately needed food. Even some of our MRI's would be religiously suitable to eat and meet their Jewish 'Kashrut' dietary laws and possibly suitable for Islam too.
Maybe all of this seems too extreme, but all of the bible thumpers during Obama's presidency kept attacking Obama for doing nothing to help the Yazidis! But, when the Boko Haram (al-Qaida jihadi group) kidnapped 200
school girls in Nigeria, nobody cared and nothing was done. Just like the Rwandan genocide, we did nothing. The world always turns a blind on Africa. Now, do to our war weary nation (because of W's misinformation about WMD's in Iraq), we created a vacuum in Iraq and groups like ISIS/ISIL flourished and we sat back and did nothing. What happened to the concept of, you broke it and now you own it?
Maybe all of this seems too extreme, but all of the bible thumpers during Obama's presidency kept attacking Obama for doing nothing to help the Yazidis! But, when the Boko Haram (al-Qaida jihadi group) kidnapped 200
school girls in Nigeria, nobody cared and nothing was done. Just like the Rwandan genocide, we did nothing. The world always turns a blind on Africa. Now, do to our war weary nation (because of W's misinformation about WMD's in Iraq), we created a vacuum in Iraq and groups like ISIS/ISIL flourished and we sat back and did nothing. What happened to the concept of, you broke it and now you own it?
39
Ask Balkan or Anatolian Christians how "little-known" and "mostly defunct" religiously justified slavery -- or forced conversion -- as part of religiously sanctioned violence is; they lived with it till the beginning of the twentieth century.
1
So the "Bible thumpers" as you refer to them said, "Obama, you broke it so you need to fix it" and nothing was done, correct? Now walk us through how America "broke" Nigeria and "broke" Rwanda. The vacuum did not exist in Iraq until we pulled out. And prior to going in there were regular massacres of various factions by the Iraqi government so please stop pretending like this all started because of the invasion. The leaders in the Middle East countries have demonstrated for centuries that they have no problem sacraficing the lives of their citizens if they are of a different religious or political belief of the leader (see Syria now). Same goes for Africa.
Throwing money at these countries unfortunately generally fails because of the level of corruption and short of going in and overthrowing the leaders and taking over nothing else will change that.
Throwing money at these countries unfortunately generally fails because of the level of corruption and short of going in and overthrowing the leaders and taking over nothing else will change that.
DC, in a word, Oil. Nigeria is oil rich and owned and controlled by some of the world's largest oil extractors, with no concern for the poverty, suffering, and misery there, to say nothing of the environmental degradation of Nigeria by the rush to get the most oil out in the least time.
I wonder what Rex Tillotson thinks.....you see Big Oil is driving the world today, (and Putin wants in on it, too). No Nigeria is much sinned against by western predatory capitalism.
I wonder what Rex Tillotson thinks.....you see Big Oil is driving the world today, (and Putin wants in on it, too). No Nigeria is much sinned against by western predatory capitalism.
This should surprise no one. The reality of most "mujahideen" outfits like ISIS is the fact that the ability to rape and loot at will is what actually attracts fighters to ISIS in the first place. Religion is used as a pretext. One tragic aspect is the fact we will never actually know how many women were raped, maimed and murdered. We will also never learn of the numerous enablers of ISIS either. How many arranged for travel to and from; how many money changers; how many bought and sold and made a profit from looted possessions? How many arranged for the dissemination of ISIS propaganda on the internet and the media? As bad as the murderers and looters are, those who enabled them to do so are even worse -- and probably more numerous.
262
Yes and quite a few of their enablers will be found among our 'allies' in Saudi Arabia, The Gulf States, and Turkey.
4
These women were trafficked among different men and treated like concentration camp inmates. I hope any prosecution is for "crimes against humanity."
3
How about going after the pornographers and advertisers in the US who promote rape? Again, people - wake up to what is happening in your own communities.
Before Bish invaded Iraq, the region wasn't paradise, but it was more stable. Let's remember how this invasion stirred the hornet's nest, destabilized the power balances in the region, provoked ang aggravated Sunni-Shia conflict, and created the conditions for the rise of Isis. The invasion of. Iraq, led by erode Bush and Dick Cheney was a policy fail of the highest order. Remember this.
63
"Before Bish invaded Iraq, the region wasn't paradise, but it was more stable." Well, yeah, Germany in the 1930s was pretty stable, too. So was the USSR under Stalin. So was Libya under Gadaffi. So was China under Mao. So was Cuba under Castro. Stability can be overrated.
"...policy fail of the highest order." Depends on which you value more, stability (see above) or removal of a despot.
Given what our national intelligence services were telling us, going into Iraq was imperative.
Many would argue that our withdrawal from Iraq by President Obama is what gave birth to ISIS. But that would be an inconvenient fact, so let's move on to blaming Bush.
"...policy fail of the highest order." Depends on which you value more, stability (see above) or removal of a despot.
Given what our national intelligence services were telling us, going into Iraq was imperative.
Many would argue that our withdrawal from Iraq by President Obama is what gave birth to ISIS. But that would be an inconvenient fact, so let's move on to blaming Bush.
3
ISIS came about as Obamas JV Team 4 yrs into Obamas reign, if youre going to blame Bush, why stop there, Clinton, Carter and even George Washington and Columbus had a causal effect. Why cherry pick the need to explain the manifestation of Evil such as ISIS, who taught ISIS mass beheadings and rape culture, why not start there, why start with Bush? If Bush is the true genesis of such evil, then its clear you have idealogic tunnel vision.
The "J V Team"? Thanks Mister President.
6
We are America and we don't help these people. We should all burn in hell
11
And this, tragically, is what the "religion of peace" allows its faithful followers to do to other human beings, simply because of their gender and their beliefs. This is what Mohammed and his early followers did in Arabia. This is what the Quran and Hadith permit in black and white. Absolutely sickening and totally evil.
For instance, see Quran 4:24 "And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess", Quran 8:69 "But (now) enjoy what you took in war, lawful and good", Quran 24:32 "And marry those among you who are single and those who are fit among your male slaves and your female slaves...", Quran 33:50 "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee" among various other verses; also see Sahih Bukhari 34:432, Sahih Muslim 4345 and various other instances about slaves captured and raped by Mohammed and/or his early followers recorded in the Hadith.
For instance, see Quran 4:24 "And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess", Quran 8:69 "But (now) enjoy what you took in war, lawful and good", Quran 24:32 "And marry those among you who are single and those who are fit among your male slaves and your female slaves...", Quran 33:50 "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee" among various other verses; also see Sahih Bukhari 34:432, Sahih Muslim 4345 and various other instances about slaves captured and raped by Mohammed and/or his early followers recorded in the Hadith.
46
Thank you for writing this. Where are all these "feminists" from the West supporting the Yazidi and demanding war-crimes trials for ISIS members for what has been done to these unfortunate women?
12
Actually, the same behavior is mandated in the Hebrew Bible, for women in cities conquered by the invading Hebrews as they besieged cities who resisted them. See, for example, Numbers, Ch. 31, Deuteronomy, Ch. 20. This was evidently common practice in warfare among some societies in the ancient 'Middle East' (and in other regions). Of course, there is legitimate scholarly argument about what actually happened during this period, based on the archaeological record... but the texts are clear. The Quran and the Hebrew Bible prescribe some of the same behaviors. Unfortunately, some Muslims still think these prescriptions apply to the 21st century. Most Muslims would reject such applications, just as most (all? almost all?) Jews would reject any applicability of some of the Hebrew Bible texts to the 21st century.
5
Straw man alert! We're right here.
Please give me ONE example of a feminist who has condoned this behavior or stated that these people should not be prosecuted as war criminals. Just one. Thanks in advance.
Please give me ONE example of a feminist who has condoned this behavior or stated that these people should not be prosecuted as war criminals. Just one. Thanks in advance.
3
Is it possible that these girls were drugged by their captors, and that they are now experiencing withdrawal?
7
I agree. This is beyond trauma. This sounds some sort of drug withdrawal. How horrible for these women.
2
Have you ever been brutally raped by multiple men? How do you know "this is beyond trauma", and what are your qualifications? I am not disagreeing that the outcome of their captivity and torture is horrible...but I am questioning your understanding of rape and trauma.
1
The need to enter an almost coma-like sleep lasting months, years in fact, can be the body's way to try to heal trauma. It is not "beyond trauma." It is possible that few humans have experienced the depth of horror these women have, and we do not understand what is now happening. Usually trauma results in lack of sleep, but it could be that the women and girls already moved beyond that stage during their three-year experience. It is also possible that awareness of their release from captivity is at the tissue level and their bodies have moved to physical collapse. Perhaps we could think of it as more closely related to medically-induced coma, though it is occurring naturally. Neuroscientists will have more insight on this subject.
1
There is a direct correlation between this crime against humanity and the extremist sectarian misogynist Wahabhi Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabian sword dancing and orb-rubbing of Donald Trump, Rex Tillerson and Wilbur Ross. Of the nineteen 9/11/01 hijackers 15 were Saudi and so was Osama Bin Laden. ISIS and al Qaeda are both Sunni Muslim Arab led and founded organizations.
The ethnic sectarian crime against humanity being inflicted on the Houthi in Yemen by the Saudis with American arms and diplomatic cover has led to a major cholera epidemic.
The ethnic sectarian crime against humanity being inflicted on the Houthi in Yemen by the Saudis with American arms and diplomatic cover has led to a major cholera epidemic.
40
I'm so glad their relatives--especially their male relatives--are standing by them. That said, these girls/women need intensive therapy. Who can help? The UN? We need to get them help asap. I will happily donate money.
I have a daughter who is 10 and still believes in Santa and fairies. Souhayla was only three years older when she began to be serially raped. It breaks my heart.
I have a daughter who is 10 and still believes in Santa and fairies. Souhayla was only three years older when she began to be serially raped. It breaks my heart.
595
There is an organization that helps women who are victims of war: Women for Women International.
2
The UN? The only thing it is good for is a good ol' time in New York for its diplomats.
3
Lauren, a fifth-grader who still believes in Santa should be told, if for no other reason than that she will begin to be ridiculed by her siblings and friends. Accompany it with some ice cream. I'm serious.
1
If the US had not invaded Iraq, ISIS would not have been created and the Yazidis women and girls would not have been raped. Americans tend not to connect these tragedies with the US government policies and actions. The victims and their relatives, however, blame the US for what happened to them. This most likely explains the reason why Americans are so perplexed as to why we are so disliked in many parts of the world. We wonder why peoples in these parts of the world are mostly ungrateful to our humanitarian assistance. It is no accident that Americans are called the ugly Americans. This perception can only be changed if Americans become much more involve in the conduct of US foreign policies and demand changes.
585
If the US had not supported the autocratic royal fossil fuel theocratic Sunni Muslim House of Saud with arms and diplomacy there would have been no al Qaeda nor ISIS. This problem predates W.
31
LOL. Or, try this on for size. Saddam goes on to create the largest, most powerful army in the region. His European pals get the UN sanctions overturned (as was well underway in 2001-2002), and re-equip him with the best, most modern weapons.
He invades a country we couldn't care less about, like oh, Iran, to consolidate his power. Or maybe he pulls a Nasser, pulling together a mass coalition of the willing. He already had deep influence in Jordan. He topples the Hashemites, then is facing Israel.
Meanwhile, he continues with his torture factories, killing his own citizens at will, all the while to the cheers of the masses.
You want to play couldashoulda? This was a highly likely scenario if Saddam had not been removed. History will show it a net plus.
He invades a country we couldn't care less about, like oh, Iran, to consolidate his power. Or maybe he pulls a Nasser, pulling together a mass coalition of the willing. He already had deep influence in Jordan. He topples the Hashemites, then is facing Israel.
Meanwhile, he continues with his torture factories, killing his own citizens at will, all the while to the cheers of the masses.
You want to play couldashoulda? This was a highly likely scenario if Saddam had not been removed. History will show it a net plus.
5
The invasion of Iraq was of course wrong but the Iraqi people had a chance to start over after Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. They had to decide whether to love their children or hate each other more. They chose the the later.
3
These cases of rape should be catagorized as war crimes and the perpetrators should be pursued until they are brought to justice!
20
There are no words.
16
It is unfortunate that even after so many centuries there has been no reform in the relgion>Other religions did accept their shortcomings and went after reform in line with modern thinking.
3
I wonder whether the Korean so-called comfort women don't have some insight that would be helpful to these women and their families. Sadly, this is not a new story, but a continuing saga.
17
When these ISIS fighters are caught, no mercy should be shown for them or any of women who have joined them. I hope these young women are able to get the help they need and are able to eventually return to somewhat normal lives.
6
As I went from a young girl to teenager, I began to see that religion for the most part is a way to subjugate and control females. What these Islamic Jihadist did and continue to do is just a more extreme form thousands of years of subjugation and debasement of females in the name of their 'god'. I believe in karma and hope the men who tried to kill these women mentally and sexual every day are sent to eternal damnation.
32
Civilization, behold your implacable enemy.
10
All one can do is hope that Souhayla and the other young women, who were so brutally treated by the demented men of ISIS, can heal with time.
2
"Relying on a little-known and mostly defunct corpus of Islamic law, the Islamic State argued that the minority’s religious standing rendered them eligible for enslavement."
Yes, this is a now defunct rule, but the fact that it was ever in effect solidifies my belief in non-believing. And these types of sanctioned atrocities exist in all religions, lest I be accused of anti-Islam sentiments.
I am just horrified that anyone would choose to follow any religion with such a barbaric history.
Yes, this is a now defunct rule, but the fact that it was ever in effect solidifies my belief in non-believing. And these types of sanctioned atrocities exist in all religions, lest I be accused of anti-Islam sentiments.
I am just horrified that anyone would choose to follow any religion with such a barbaric history.
6
Humanity as a whole has a "barbaric" history, much of it quite recent, and religion is not the only justification used. Will you be deciding not to be human, as well as not religious? It's certainly accurate to point to these kinds of violent teachings and atrocities in religious history, but it's shortsighted to imagine that religion is the source of the problem: what it is to be human is the source of the problem. Turn to philosophy or to theology or to neuroscience or to sociology to try to account for that; regardless, the source is the same.
3
As a fellow non-believer, I would remind you that religions have nothing n them that humans didn't bring. All human institutions as stained and imperfect with "barbaric history." That isn't a reason to discard them, but rather a reason to be vigilant and reflective about them. Though I do not subscribe, I prefer to assume that adherents of a particular religious creed are drawn by its positive sides rather than its troubled past--until and unless evidence shows me otherwise.
Heartbreaking.
3
Heart breaking--
Reminds me of Seligman's work on learned helplessness. Must surround them with women and men who can model healthy assertive behavior and provide them a safe place, such as a battered women's support group, to slowly put into words their thoughts and feelings. The ministrations of their community are only reinforcing the women's regressed passivity rather than reinforcing the resilient nature which empowered them to survive such an ordeal in the first place.
Reminds me of Seligman's work on learned helplessness. Must surround them with women and men who can model healthy assertive behavior and provide them a safe place, such as a battered women's support group, to slowly put into words their thoughts and feelings. The ministrations of their community are only reinforcing the women's regressed passivity rather than reinforcing the resilient nature which empowered them to survive such an ordeal in the first place.
5
The human capacity for sadism is terrifying.
I will hold these victims in my mind and heart. Let us all think of them everyday, and keep them in the light.
Thank you Ms. Callimachi. You are remarkable.
I will hold these victims in my mind and heart. Let us all think of them everyday, and keep them in the light.
Thank you Ms. Callimachi. You are remarkable.
20
Heard this story on Times podcast. Remarkable reporting on a modern day horror story. The victims deserve our attention and aid. The journalists and NYT deserve our praise and encouragement. I'm looking at you, Mr. Trump.
9
You're going to be looking for a long time. If you think he's going to do anything constructive about this, you haven't been paying attention.
1
Bombing portions of the Middle East to smithereens, as millions of innocent women and children in Yemen and Syria and Iraq suffer and die is NOT going to eliminate ISIS. In fact the damage the West, including the United States, is wreaking on those countries and Afghanistan is a major recruiting tool for the monsters.
So "murderous rage" on our part does not serve these woman who have been hurt so cruelly at the hands of men.
We need to solve these conflicts with diplomacy. It is the ONLY way forward. Yet with the barbarian Narcissist in the White House, there is no chance of that.
Poor people. Poor women. Poor world.
So "murderous rage" on our part does not serve these woman who have been hurt so cruelly at the hands of men.
We need to solve these conflicts with diplomacy. It is the ONLY way forward. Yet with the barbarian Narcissist in the White House, there is no chance of that.
Poor people. Poor women. Poor world.
28
These women are incredible survivors and I stand in awe of them. These women should be celebrated. NYT, is there anything we can do for these women?
19
Thank you for writing about Souhayla and the others who are still captured. Thousands??? I can't imagine... I hope Souhayla has access to a counselor experienced in treating PTSD to help her come out of the horror that she's only partially free from. Her story is utterly heartbreaking.
9
One commenter to this article wrote, "United Nations War Crimes Commission is necessary and needs to be adequately funded to bring justice to this situation." The only justice I see is for the complete obliteration of all ISIS terrorists. If one has joined their evil forces, they have signed their own death warrants. There is no capturing these monsters and putting them on trial for crimes against humanity. If captured, a bullet to the head would suffice and be the justice that many scream out for. To ask one of these rape victims to openly testify against these godless savages is in my opinion torture. I can't help but think of the nightmares these victims are having as they lie in their bed in the unconscious state that many of them seem to be. Let them heal which will take years and we in the civilized world will get justice for them. The only justice I can think of is death of all ISIS members.
8
Understandable, but think again. The Soviets had the same attitude at Nuremberg. They planned a quick show trial and mass executions. Our liberal values dictated otherwise. The result was a series of trials that not only brought death sentences, but also made the people of the world--Germans, but also everyone else--confront the horrifying truths and directly led to decreased odds of it happening again.
We need to do the same thing here. Our first duty to the dead and the maimed is to make sure their suffering is not in vain by building a future where all our progeny are spared the experience. Vengeance must take a back seat.
We need to do the same thing here. Our first duty to the dead and the maimed is to make sure their suffering is not in vain by building a future where all our progeny are spared the experience. Vengeance must take a back seat.
8
After the liberation of Mosul, seeing ISIS members being thrown from buildings and machine-gunned in the water seems less cruel and a disinfection.
2
I feel terrible for this woman but I am seeing issues with the story that really hamper the impact. Why do the photos show this woman sitting up and eating?
Then, there is this sentence, which I had to read three times. The way it is written it implies the reporters could no longer stand.
I guess this is the result already of the changes in copy editing?
A day after the video was taken, reporters went to see the women, and they could no longer stand. They lay on mattresses inside the plastic walls of their tent.
Then, there is this sentence, which I had to read three times. The way it is written it implies the reporters could no longer stand.
I guess this is the result already of the changes in copy editing?
A day after the video was taken, reporters went to see the women, and they could no longer stand. They lay on mattresses inside the plastic walls of their tent.
3
Rukmini -- I've listened to your heartfelt testimony on The Daily with Michael Barbaro. Thank you for your bravery and for your shining of light on a problem all too often ignored.
12
As ISIS continues to collapse, more and more Yazidi women will be rescued from their captors' foul clutches. But who will undertake the long-term therapy they need to find some semblance of normalcy again?
7
I have been following Ms.Callimachi's work on this subject. Doggedly, with great determination she has pursued this when seems others averting eyes. Hats off. This is a difficult subject, unpleasant for all.
Last week in The Guardian UK, there was a long read on the subject. Equally damning.
It would be a mistake to consider this merely anecdotal. or assume is confined to this geographical area. Its the same in Somalia and across the African continent in Nigeria. It was so in Philippines and in Afghanistan. Traditionally, rather historically, women have borne the brunt of a conquering army. But this is something far more insidious with definite ideology dating back to 7th century.
At some point we will have to assign blame : the power game players, the think tankers, the op ed writers full of passion, the Presidents and the Prime Ministers, the ideology and the reporters on the field. This did not evolve in a vacuum. This did not come out of nowhere. With brutal honesty we will have to point the finger.
Last week in The Guardian UK, there was a long read on the subject. Equally damning.
It would be a mistake to consider this merely anecdotal. or assume is confined to this geographical area. Its the same in Somalia and across the African continent in Nigeria. It was so in Philippines and in Afghanistan. Traditionally, rather historically, women have borne the brunt of a conquering army. But this is something far more insidious with definite ideology dating back to 7th century.
At some point we will have to assign blame : the power game players, the think tankers, the op ed writers full of passion, the Presidents and the Prime Ministers, the ideology and the reporters on the field. This did not evolve in a vacuum. This did not come out of nowhere. With brutal honesty we will have to point the finger.
12
And do we attribute this, too, to western imperialism or Isreal or politics? I am sure it has nothing to do with religion.
It is time for the media and apologetic left to recognize that Islam is a doctrine that lends itself to the horrors that this article depicts. Reform must be demanded.
It is time for the media and apologetic left to recognize that Islam is a doctrine that lends itself to the horrors that this article depicts. Reform must be demanded.
12
After all these years of public education about Islam and public condemnation of violence by one Muslim leader and group after another, is this really still your response? That you don't think there has been "reform" in Islam?
4
As the article points out, ISIL employed a strained set of "creative" interpretations of medieval Islamic thought in order to justify their behavior. Such rationalizing can occur with any human tradition or institution.
I do not defend Islam, but if you are going to argue that it is somehow inherently uniquely facilitating of moral perversion, you will need to present evidence. This article contains none.
I do not defend Islam, but if you are going to argue that it is somehow inherently uniquely facilitating of moral perversion, you will need to present evidence. This article contains none.
2
How about taking a look in the mirror and starting with the Christian fundamentalists that currently control the levers of policy and power in your own country?
4
Are there any groups on the ground able to help these women and the children they were forced to have? Would an NGO with sexual assault counselors be a good thing to deploy?
8
It's called post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. I hope these women get access to the best of current treatment for this. Read Judith Herman's book, 'Trauma and Recovery'.
5
Actually, it's considerably beyond the more common PTSD cases. And it's unlikely they'll have access to "the best of current treatment." It's unlikely they'd even be given refugee status if they wanted to flee the region to the US.
13
Rukmini, Dearest Nadia lost family the week before last. Her niece was killed. In Mosel. Also the terrorist's child and that mother. Probably bombed.
It never ends. Now, we have pay back.
Nadia is dealing with her loss. She is good. She is strong. This drains her, it drains us.
Sandy
It never ends. Now, we have pay back.
Nadia is dealing with her loss. She is good. She is strong. This drains her, it drains us.
Sandy
3
Just as the Holocaust did not happen over night, so does the treatment of these women show what position women have in Islam. And for that matter all infidels.
5
It's not just Islam, dude. Dehumanizing women has a very long history, particularly in monotheistic religions.
4
This is why summary execution of captured ISIS psychopaths is not only understandable but proper.
8
Hey Guys! I've got a lil' thought experiment for you... if you'd like to know what it's like to experience media as a woman: Imagine turning on your radio, TV, picking up a newspaper, etc. and every day of the week there is news of WOMEN rolling into villages and murdering, kidnapping, and raping men and boys... every day of the week you read about, listen, watch: WOMEN running corrupt governments, corrupt corporations, and corrupt religious institutions with only a sprinkling of complicit token males (as it is in nearly every nation on earth, nearly every powerful institution on earth)... every day you read/listen/watch: WOMEN running pedophile rings (with just a sprinkling of complicit MEN involved); WOMEN trafficking male sex slaves (with just a sprinkling of complicit male cohorts); WOMEN on shooting sprees (with a statistically insignificant number of male shooters)... Imagine 99% of serial killers are WOMEN. Imagine WOMEN forcibly making men cover their bodies and faces. And imagine in the most liberal and free societies: it is still WOMEN who are overwhelmingly represented in all positions of power (and WOMEN who legislate to bar access to medically sound procedures that affect only men). These same WOMEN throw themselves a massive decadent party to celebrate a homoerotic female sport while the men bring them big bowls of nachos and pretend to be interested. ETc. Etc. And then when you call attention to the gender disparity, you're called "shrill" and "hysterical."
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Preach, Tempiku. The psyche of the male needs to be examined and kept in check.
5
I wish there was a way to give endless "thumbs up recommendations for this comment. Bravo!
5
best explanation I have ever read. Hopefully it will sink in past the defense of ego.
2
Once again, this has "Bush" and "Cheney" written all over it. One wonders how these two criminals sleep at night.
13
How brave of this young woman and her family to share their story. I'm stunned by the continued atrocities that are part of this unending conflict.
How does this young woman go forward?
How can she be helped and how can the world help?
I pray for her recovery, but what tangible thing can we do?
Imagine what a warrior she could be if given the care and support needed to find her way back to a secure sense of life?
How could the captors and torturers someday understand their crimes and experience the deepest of remorse and repentance? Imagine the change that reformed torturers could facilitate?
What could bring that about? I imagine a miracle.
How does this young woman go forward?
How can she be helped and how can the world help?
I pray for her recovery, but what tangible thing can we do?
Imagine what a warrior she could be if given the care and support needed to find her way back to a secure sense of life?
How could the captors and torturers someday understand their crimes and experience the deepest of remorse and repentance? Imagine the change that reformed torturers could facilitate?
What could bring that about? I imagine a miracle.
159
Global matriarchy. That is the miracle that is needed. Men perpetrate these atrocities every day everywhere on the Earth. Why? Because they can, and usually with complete impunity. We have only just successfully prosecuted rape as a war crime (1998). These women may have survived in body, but hardly in mind. My heart breaks.
2
The hypocrisy of religious zealots is universal, whether it's our religious zealots or their religious zealots.
647
I saw an article from Canada where Canadians were asked if Christianity did more harm than good. The majority said it did more harm. Unfortunately, in the USA, with our religious fixations and automatic belief that religions is a social, familial, and cultural good, we have a long way to go before we recognize the roots of religious violence.
I think Jesus was non-violent, himself, but the present day version of to many churches and too many Christians, is to be wholly committed to violence in childrearing, forcing their children to believe, and the demagoguery that keeps this all in place. I myself was molested at age 13 by a bunch of good Christian teens a year or two earlier. They did it because they could. They did it as male bonding. They did it because in the bible they were taught, women were always to be seen as mere 'objects' to dominate and control. They were enacting what their fathers and their church fathers had done for generation, dominate and control.
I think Jesus was non-violent, himself, but the present day version of to many churches and too many Christians, is to be wholly committed to violence in childrearing, forcing their children to believe, and the demagoguery that keeps this all in place. I myself was molested at age 13 by a bunch of good Christian teens a year or two earlier. They did it because they could. They did it as male bonding. They did it because in the bible they were taught, women were always to be seen as mere 'objects' to dominate and control. They were enacting what their fathers and their church fathers had done for generation, dominate and control.
2
There needs to be a triple recommend button, Beth, and the ability to click it twenty times.
And who exactly are "our religious zealots"? I"ll make a deal. I'll live for a year with our religious zealots, as defined by you, and you go live with ISIS and experience what happened to these women for a year. This is the most pathetic example of moral equivalence I've seen in quite awhile. It deprives these woman of their experience so that you can luxuriate in your personal outrage.
The horrors of ISIS are finally coming to the attention of the world on Yazidi innocent women.The UN should immediately extend financial support to the the women who have suffered in the hands of ISIS. The entire world should support such action of the UN.Goodness only can save us all in this world.
223
What about American complicity and accountability for this crime against humanity?
Syria and Iraq have paid in blood and lives for ISIS.
Nikki Halley is no Samantha Power nor Susan Rice.
Syria and Iraq have paid in blood and lives for ISIS.
Nikki Halley is no Samantha Power nor Susan Rice.
5
Rishi, we (at the UN) are doing all we can. And so are other admirable organisations, international, regional and local - many Christian and other faith-based. (For the UN, check out UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP websites.) But we need money, we need trained people. The first comes from members states and individuals, and it is far too little. The second... well, it comes from nowhere. It takes years to train a qualified counsellor with enough experience to treat these cases, and it should be someone from that community and language. Good Arabic or Kurdish-speaking experienced counsellors are as rare as diamonds and snatched up desperately. And they are, after all, normal people with families and problems of their own, and the burden on them is inhuman.
Man's inhumanity to man is nothing new but this is man's inhumanity to women and children and the perpetrators should be condemned.
191
Why are you differentiating between "inhumanity to man" and "inhumanity to women and children?" How is that productive?
3
Nonsense.
All persons are human and they have all been mistreated regardless of gender or age. The 4 million enslaved Africans in America on the eve of Civil War included women and children. Black women and children were lynched in America. The Native Americans wounded and slain by the American invasion and occupation included women and children.
All persons are human and they have all been mistreated regardless of gender or age. The 4 million enslaved Africans in America on the eve of Civil War included women and children. Black women and children were lynched in America. The Native Americans wounded and slain by the American invasion and occupation included women and children.
4
Man's inhumanity to women and children is nothing new, either.
1
My heart goes out to these children and women who were systematically tortured for years. Souhayla, captured at age 13, must have been treated with complete inhumanity. ISIS has zero claim to religious foundations: it is a group of psychopathic monsters. No nation should support them in anyway. If ISIS is an outgrowth of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabism, then Saudi Arabia's government should treat Wahhabism as a cult that needs complete eradication or reformation.
May all in ISIS's cruel grasp be freed to rejoin their families and make new lives for themselves. I hope they heal and can forget their abuse.
May all in ISIS's cruel grasp be freed to rejoin their families and make new lives for themselves. I hope they heal and can forget their abuse.
314
The 2.3 million Americans are 25% of the world's total with only 5% of humanity. And while only 13% of Americans are black like Ben Carson and Barack Obama 40% of the prisoners are black.
Black Lives Matter!
America misled a coalition into the invasion and occupation of Iraq based upon lies about Iraqi WMD's and an Iraqi connection to 9/11/01.
Black Lives Matter!
America misled a coalition into the invasion and occupation of Iraq based upon lies about Iraqi WMD's and an Iraqi connection to 9/11/01.
5
blackmamba,
Please tell me that you are not suggesting that the US imprison its people in direct proportion to its ethnic makeup.
Please tell me that you are not suggesting that the US imprison its people in direct proportion to its ethnic makeup.
2
Saudi Arabia's government = Wahhabism! It is more than a cult: it is the official religion, in the guise of Islam, of Saudi Arabia. Questions: how do we (particularly under our current regime) "reform" one of our closest allies?
Next time you wonder "why didn't anyone say anything?" look at those Yazidi girls in their self-induced sleep, their catatonic states. Is it any wonder that victims of abuse wait, often decades, to speak up, at which point perpetrators have constructed sound narratives and defenses, statues of limitations let them walk free and a large chorus of voices rises up to say "it never happened."
What happened to the Yazidi women is horrible, but so is the sexual enslavement and abuse of boys and girls, women and men within our borders. Let's not forget them, simply because their perpetrators look like us.
What happened to the Yazidi women is horrible, but so is the sexual enslavement and abuse of boys and girls, women and men within our borders. Let's not forget them, simply because their perpetrators look like us.
673
Prison is the carefully carved colored exception to the 13th Amendment's abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude. All of 'us' do not look like the Obama's. But 40% of the prisoners do.
2
'Us' are not all Catholic clergy nor elected officials.
1
They are shut down. Their personalities are so traumatized, so overwhelmed, they can't engage. And in some cultures, it's the girls and women who end up being shamed and shunned by their families. So many tragedies. So much 'soul murder'. So many lives destroyed.
It is called trauma.
You keep going as long as you can, but when you are finally free, when the unrelenting pressures are gone and the body and mind are no longer fighting for day to day survival, the mind can at last begin to integrate the enormity of the violent experiences and complete degradation they have endured.
These women need rest and comfort.
I hope they can, with time, regain some of the trajectory of their lives before all this happened. It may take a long, long time, even under the best of circumstances, even with the love and support of their families.
Godspeed.
You keep going as long as you can, but when you are finally free, when the unrelenting pressures are gone and the body and mind are no longer fighting for day to day survival, the mind can at last begin to integrate the enormity of the violent experiences and complete degradation they have endured.
These women need rest and comfort.
I hope they can, with time, regain some of the trajectory of their lives before all this happened. It may take a long, long time, even under the best of circumstances, even with the love and support of their families.
Godspeed.
655
And EMDR therapy, to help them release their horrible memories and take the charge out of the trauma. I'm so sorry these girls had to endure this. The cruelty of this world ruled by men -- it's breathtaking.
8
Even with recovery, the psychic scars will remain.
2
Will these women be rejected by their countrymen, as Muslim women subjected to such treatment might be? May God bless the uncle who is trying to care for his niece now that she is free of her abusers.
1
Being a peace-loving person is mostly impossible in the face of stories like this. What to do..........all we can do is dehumanize the humans who perpetrate this kind of behavior and stomp them into oblivion!
32
God bless these women. And God bless their saviors.
75
Which God are you referring to?
3
Where was "God" when they were being raped?What about those killed? Religion is opium for the affluent, it seems.
4
If this article does not trigger a murderous rage against ISIS, and firm our commitment to eradicating them from every corner of the planet - then we are not really civilized. Blame a religion all you want; these are deeds of some men who did what they wanted to do - and now must be held accountable (or plain terminated).
This crime against humanity is wholly different, and should not be conflated with reform of Islam. Islam is what it is; people do what they do. We should leave reform of Islam to Muslims as they see fit; we should go after these people and punish them severely. Justice cannot wait for the reform of a religion.
Kalidan
This crime against humanity is wholly different, and should not be conflated with reform of Islam. Islam is what it is; people do what they do. We should leave reform of Islam to Muslims as they see fit; we should go after these people and punish them severely. Justice cannot wait for the reform of a religion.
Kalidan
262
I doubt that war crimes involving women will end with Isis. I have a family member who was sexually enslaved and removed from her family in the Armenian genocide in 1918. She was known as the slave girl in newspaper articles at the time and was never seen again by her family who are still searching. Her 15 siblings were murdered that day. That wasn't Isis.
6
Your idea of being civilized is "murderous rage"?
3
“This is what they have done to our people” ... That uncle's comment makes the sad story of human degradation even sadder and ultimately hopeless.
1
"War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people." -Ben Ferencz. And add to that rapists and slaveholders. War crimes are so destructive and yet, so often go unprosecuted and forgotten. You know these vicitms and their families will never forget. Justice is slow, but the United Nations War Crimes Commission is neccesary and needs to be adequately funded to bring justice to this situation. "The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems." - Mahatma Gandhi
129
Tillerson closed the State Department's War Crimes department, no doubt at the urging of Trump. This is an example of why that was an abuse of power.
9
...except it isn't war that changed these men into horrible people. Their horirble nature begat the violence.
10
Tom, When I first heard of the UN War Crimes Commission I thought great finally justice for horrible crimes like genocide and the abuse of women and children. But what are they actually doing? Like the World Court that was set up for the same purpose I never hear of any of their work or any convictions.
3
In many places, women who are victims of this kind of terrible serial crime are blamed for their victimization. I hope that this society can find a way to help these poor girls, who have been so terrible abused, to return to the society. And I hope that these girls will be able to find partners who do not blame them for being abused by this monstrous ISIS horror.
160
I had the same thought. From the article, it sounds like their families are being really supportive, which I'm sure will be helpful during a very difficult healing process.
8
Women everywhere are blamed for their victimization, regardless of degree.
13
The Yazidi, somewhat uniquely, do not blame the women for their victimization and do not regard them as ineligible for marriage. They are welcomed back into the community
14
Some of the young women who have escaped from the FLDS have similar experiences. They have the energy to escape, and do ok right after, but then end up in quasi-catatonic states.
The ones who 'recover' have generally said that they coped with the daily sexual assaults by shutting down their minds and even now that they don't need to do that to survive anymore, it's just what they're used to.
I mention this because it's important to be aware that there are medical precidents about, and current research on, treating women who are survivors of repeated rape / sexual assault in similar contexts.
It's impossible to know if the research on the FLDS will help these girls, but it exists and I hope connections get made the information shared.
Maybe one of the journalists who wrote this article could follow up and see if the doctors there treating these girls have access to the research on what we know about women who escape cults? So often even in the US medical research gets silo'd, so I mean, one simple check could lead to those doctors having information that could literally be life saving.
The ones who 'recover' have generally said that they coped with the daily sexual assaults by shutting down their minds and even now that they don't need to do that to survive anymore, it's just what they're used to.
I mention this because it's important to be aware that there are medical precidents about, and current research on, treating women who are survivors of repeated rape / sexual assault in similar contexts.
It's impossible to know if the research on the FLDS will help these girls, but it exists and I hope connections get made the information shared.
Maybe one of the journalists who wrote this article could follow up and see if the doctors there treating these girls have access to the research on what we know about women who escape cults? So often even in the US medical research gets silo'd, so I mean, one simple check could lead to those doctors having information that could literally be life saving.
447
what is FLDS?
3
@ Anne - Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints
(old school Mormons)
(old school Mormons)
FLDS is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, i.e., Mormon church.
4
Isis or no, Islam has been in desperate need of reform and Muslim clerics must be made to see that.
168
Are you aware of the centuries of violence, torture, murder which accompanied the Christian Reformation? We're witnessing that now in Islam.
132
The levels of sexual violence endured by American girls and women is far higher than many other Western countries, Far higher.
Consider that and google it if you don't want to believe me.
And consider also how many of your fellow Americans, who are female and have been sexually assaulted are also dealing with similar trauma.
I would respectfully suggest that you also look at sexual abuse within the various churches, and not just catholic.. but also among Protestant denominations and outlying cults and among any religious group, for that matter.
We are also in desperate need of reform.
Consider that and google it if you don't want to believe me.
And consider also how many of your fellow Americans, who are female and have been sexually assaulted are also dealing with similar trauma.
I would respectfully suggest that you also look at sexual abuse within the various churches, and not just catholic.. but also among Protestant denominations and outlying cults and among any religious group, for that matter.
We are also in desperate need of reform.
232
Evil men will use any excuse to perpetrate their evil. Claiming that they do it because of a religion is just an excuse. All humans know it is wrong to treat other humans this way.
393