Antislavery Usable Past

ISIS has singled out the Yezidi minority, notably its women and children, for particularly brutal treatment. In August 2014, ISIS fighters abducted hundreds, possibly thousands, of Yezidi men, women and children who were fleeing the IS takeover from the Sinjar region, in the north-west of the country. Hundreds of the men were killed and others were forced to convert to Islam under threat of death. Younger women and girls, some as young as 12, were separated from their parents and older relatives and sold, given as gifts or forced to marry ISIS fighters and supporters.

Randa was abducted in August 2014 from her village south of Mount Sinjar with her parents and siblings and scores of other relatives. She was sold or given as a “gift” to a man twice her age who then raped her. Her father was killed along with other male relatives. Her mother, who was heavily pregnant when she was abducted, gave birth in ISIS captivity and was still being held with scores of other women and children from the family when Randa told her story. Some were being held in Syria, others in Iraq. Randa and two of her aunts and two uncles managed to escape at different times. She was 16 years old during her enslavement and when she told her story in late 2014.