Demotix/Björn Kietzmann. All rights reserved.The appalling crimes committed by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) have undoubtedly terrorized the populations who continue to suffer at its hands and those across the globe watching from their computer screens and televisions.
The minority population of Yazidi women and girls are being systematically kidnapped, bought and sold into slavery, given to ISIL fighters as ‘gifts’—and these actions are merely considered ‘spoils of war.’ Girls as young as six and nine years old are being raped, tortured, executed and trafficked by ISIL. In numerous reports, hundreds of Yazidi women have committed suicide to escape their horrific situations. Even in light of these facts, the international community is currently failing to act on these atrocities.
ISIL steadily gained international notoriety after its creation in 2013. The group has taken over swathes of territory in parts of Syria and Iraq with the purpose of establishing a ‘caliphate’, or state governed by shari'a law. The group is known for its public acts of violent extremism and fierce rejection of all other religions and creeds, including other sects of Islam.
