Dozens of Yazidi women 'sold into marriage' by jihadists: NGO Several dozen Yazidi women kidnapped by Islamic State jihadists in Iraq

Dozens of Yazidi women 'sold into marriage' by jihadists: NGO

Several dozen Yazidi women kidnapped by Islamic State jihadists in Iraq 

have been taken to Syria, forced to convert and sold into marriage to
militants, a monitoring group said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights, a Britain-based NGO, said it had confirmed that at least 27
Yazidi women had been sold for around $1,000 each to IS fighters.The
group said it was aware that some 300 Yazidi women had been kidnapped
and transported to Syria by the jihadists, but it had so far documented
the sale into marriage of 27."In
recent weeks, some 300 women and girls of the Yazidi faith who were
abducted in Iraq have been distributed as spoils of war to fighters from
the Islamic State," a statement said.The
group said it had documented several cases in which the fighters then
sold the women as brides for $1,000 each to other IS members after
forcing them to convert to Islam."The
Observatory documented at least 27 cases of those being sold into
marriage by Islamic State members in the northeast of Aleppo province,
and parts of Raqa and Hassakeh province," the NGO said.It added that some Syrian Arabs
and Kurds had tried to buy some of the women in a bid to set them free,
but they were only being sold to IS members.The
Observatory said it was unclear what had happened to the rest of the
300 women, and strongly denounced the "sale of these women who are being
treated as though they are objects to buy and sell."Both UN officials and Yazidis fleeing IS advances in Iraq have said fighters kidnapped women to be sold into forced marriages.

UN
religious right monitor Heiner Beilefeldt warned earlier this month of
reports of women being executed and kidnapped by IS militants."We
have reports of women being executed and unverified reports that
strongly suggest that hundreds of women and children have been kidnapped
–- many of the teenagers have been sexually assaulted, and women have
been assigned or sold to 'IS' fighters," she said.Yazidis,
a Kurdish-speaking minority who follow an ancient faith rooted in
Zoroastrianism, are dubbed "devil worshippers" by IS militants because
of their unorthodox blend of beliefs and practices.The
IS emerged from the one-time Iraqi affiliate of Al-Qaeda but has since
broken with that group and espouses an interpretation of Islam that has
been widely rejected.It has
pressed a campaign of terror in the areas under its control in Syria and
Iraq, which it deems an Islamic "caliphate," carrying out
decapitations, crucifixions and public stonings.In June, the group launched a lightning offensive in Iraq, overrunning parts of five provinces.

In
August, it captured Yazidi villages in the area of Mount Sinjar,
prompting an enormous outpouring of the minority amid reports of
executions and the abduction of women.