New Delhi: Amid all the terrifying stories that emerge from the Islamic State-occupied Syria and Iraq, the one thing that we probably miss out is the violence directed towards women. Besides the beheadings and the strikes, the new weapon of the ISIS is ‘sexual terrorism’. According to the United Nations, the IS has forced over 1500 women, teenage girls and boys into sexual slavery.
Of the many horrific stories, the sexual violence against women is perhaps the most difficult to contemplate. The fighters are committing horrific sexual violence on a seemingly large scale.
Amnesty International released a document earlier this month noting that the IS abducts whole families in northern Iraq for sexual assault.
Are the sexual crimes against women not terrorist activities? Is this not crime against humanity? And why isn’t this crime against humanity getting more attention in the West? It might be recalled that US President Barack Obama announced strike against ISIS in Syria, outlining the strategy against the militant outfit. The only mention about the sexual crimes against women in his speech was ‘They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage’.
While the IS claims to be a religious organization, dedicated to re-establishing the caliphate, but this is just another form of warfare.
So, why does this type of violence foes unnoticed?
The prime reason is that many of the incidents go unreported therefore it is difficult to track the violence. There are vast social pressures and taboos placed on rape survivors in every country and even deeply in the conservative Middle Eastern societies.
Another reason may be the biasness towards these crimes. Such crimes tend to be viewed by some as women’s issues and not a terror tactic. Media reports, which are focused more on violence against women and children, reflect it as the humanitarian implications of the conflict rather than being tracked as yet another terrorist activity. They are inclined more towards airstrikes, beheading and bombings.
