In the past two years, ISIS has gone from far-away niggling worry to the most feared terrorist group in the world. Their offensive came fast and without warning while their reign of terror has been unprecedented in its ferocity. A few weeks ago in the UK we got our first truly tangible taste of the atrocities they’re capable of when Seifeddine Rezgui Yacoubi murdered 38 people (30 of them Britons), on a beach in Tunisia. Over in Syria and the surrounding countries, living with ISIS’s attacks has become part of daily life. Over 3 million people are now estimated to be displaced as a result of ISIS who claim to be in control of an area that holds 10 million people.
A group of people who have suffered fiercely at the hands of Islamic State are the Yazidis. ‘They’re a unique group from Iraq,’ explains Edwards Watts, the guy behind a new Channel 4 Dispatches programme Escape From Isis on this week‚ which takes a look at what life is like for women living under the ISIS regime. ‘The Yazidis have always lived in this corner of Iraq near the Sinjar Mountains.’ Last year, in August, ISIS launched a devastating attack on them. ‘No one was expecting the ferocity or speed at which they moved,’ explains Edward. ‘They captured a lot of towns and villages that were full of Yazidis. They committed large numbers of massacres; no-one knows how many men died.’ What happened to many of the women and children, though, *is *known: ‘They were kept alive and abducted,’ says Edward. ‘They were subsumed into ISIS and enslaved in medieval approach to enslavement. They’re being treated like property.’
At the moment an estimated 4 million women are living under ISIS’s terrifying rule. These include Muslims who live there as ‘free’ women and the aforementioned slaves, many of whom are Yazidis. Life is far from easy for the free women, though. ‘Muslim women have the “best” deal under ISIS,’ says Edward. ‘But they still have to labour under limitations. Other Muslim women follow a dress code but there’s nothing on this scale anywhere else in the world. They have to wear two gowns to cover their body shape, gloves, black socks, no high heels, no patterns, everything has to be black. As well as that they have to wear *three *veils. Initially they said just one veil with a slit for eyes but then they decided that you shouldn't be able to see their eyes if direct sunlight hits them so they added the other two. I bought one in Turkey and I tried to look through it and other than in the strongest direct sunlight, you're completely lost in gloom.’
Assumedly they face terrible repercussions if they defy the strict rules? ‘If they slip up they get severe physical punishment,’ agrees Edward. ‘We met one woman who stepped up onto the pavement and her toe slipped out. Someone from ISIS had seen it and arrested her. The way things work is that whichever part of the body you've exposed is where they’ll focus the punishment so she got 20 lashes on her toe. And these are the women that are treated the best!’
As for the women forced to be slaves, well, the documentary paints a very grim picture. Girls as young as nine are used as sex slaves, women and children are bought and sold in markets and the documentary even shares one account of a 60-year-old woman being forcibly drained of her blood. ‘There were horrendous tales,’ says Edward who spoke to some of the women that escaped. ‘They were bought and sold like property; there’s sexual violence against very young girls.’ A man we meet in the documentary estimates the 80% of the women that escape have been raped. ‘We spoke to one mother and her four month old baby boy had died while she was being held because they weren't being fed so she couldn't feed him,’ says Edward. ‘She was crying over the baby’s body and they said, “You're not allowed to cry for him,” and beat her. She was physically punished for mourning her baby. And I wish I could say this was unusual. Every woman who came out of the area had similar stories.’
Because as hopeless as the situation seems to be, there are a group of people risking their lives to try and help these women escape. One such man is Yazidi lawyer Khaleel al-Dakhi who's estimated to have rescued over five hundred women and children so far. Enslaved women call him with their whereabouts and Khaleel sends men on the inside to help them escape to safety. The women too show extraordinary bravery in getting hold of phones to beg for help to escape. ‘Some of the families hid their phones when they were being taken, one family hid their's in their baby’s nappy. Some bury their phones underground then run out dig it up and make a quick call.’ Other women manage to steal phones from their ISIS captors to call Khaeleel or their family. Even still, it's estimated that there’s still over 3,000 Yazidi women working as slaves in ISIS territory.
And how about the schoolgirls we see leaving the UK to go and join ISIS; how does life fare for them? Edward tells me about A Hamza Brigade, the feared female only ‘police’ force that works hard to enforce ISIS’s strict rules. Is this what these English girls might now be doing? ‘That’s what we’re told,’ he says. ‘The foreign women are put into A Hamza as part of integrating them into the ISIS structure. They all carry guns and are put in the potition of enforcing rules.’ Having seen the documentary, it’s hard to imagine why any woman would want to put herself anywhere near the regime so why are so many still going? ‘I mean, that’s the thing I hope this documentary might help to do. The narrative that Islamic State is putting out is about IS being a perfect utopia and anything we can do to make these young girls realise that that is not the case before they leave can only be good.’
Escape From ISIS is on Channel 4 at 10PM on Wednesday 15th July
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.