Moscow – The terror group ISIS is known for its demeaning and objectifying treatment of women. The ultra-hardliners would enslave and auction off women in a special arena to the highest bidder.
What is more is that even the wives of ISIS members have not been spared the violence and humiliation.
ISIS wives appeared in several interviews aired by several media outlets in which they speak of oppression and brutal violence of living under the rule of ISIS’ self-proclaimed “caliphate” in Raqqa.
Speaking to Russia Today, Khadija, who came to Syria from Tunis to live in the ISIS Syrian stronghold of Raqqa for three years, said that she saw plenty of cruelty and injustice, but no genuine pursuit of religion or Islamic law.
“My husband and I made a huge mistake by coming there. And I advise you not to believe those who say that ISIS is an Islamic state, which preaches Islam and Sharia and lives pursuant to the teachings of Prophet Mohammed and the Quran,” Khadija said.
If women were found to be in violation of the strict code of conduct, imposed by ISIS, they were locked up in prison-like detention facilities by female watchers, put in charge of “women dormitories.”
“It was sickening to be there,” Khadija said, recounting stories of women in labor seeking help and receiving indifference at best. Women were routinely denied maternity care and forced to deliver babies on the spot.
Nour Alhouda, originally from Tripoli, Lebanon, said her husband first joined a group where he was indoctrinated with ISIS ideology and left for Syria.
“He persuaded me that there’s nothing bad there and I trusted him as his wife so I arranged all the documents and I joined him in Syria,” the young woman told RT.
The slave trade is a booming market in ISIS, she said.
“They paid a lot of attention to women’s looks. They bought makeup to sell them for $15,000, the virgins were priced at $30,000.”
Young girls also became a mere commodity once they are in hands of extremists, she added, recounting that the militants planned to sell a 10-year-old girl for some $10,000.
It was reported the girls as young as 8 are sold at such slave markets. Some 3,000 to 5,000 Yazidi women are believed to be held captive by ISIS.