Sexual violence and forced conversion of women – (I) Nigeria, Syria and Iraq
By Marta Petrosillo
Militant Islamist groups in Africa and the Middle East have often used rape as a weapon of war. Systematic sexual violence can be a powerful tool when one group tries to oppress another.
Many jihadists rape non-Muslim women and force them to convert. Forcibly converting a woman of another religious group means that her children will be raised in the extremist Islam of the jihadists and that the aggressor’s sexual enslavement of women also prevents births within the woman’s religious group.[1]
Forced pregnancies and conversions are also a means to secure ‘the next generation of jihadists’. In December 2014, Daesh (ISIS) released a pamphlet, which explained to its followers that it is “permissible” to have sexual intercourse with, beat and trade non-Muslim slaves, including young girls.[2] This provides an explanation of what was done to thousands of women from Yazidi and other minority religious backgrounds under the so-called Caliphate established by Daesh in Iraq and Syria.
Sources
[1] Cf. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, section 2.
[2] Hala jabber, “Isis issues guide to raping child slaves”, Sunday Times, 14th December 2014, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/isis-issues-guide-to-raping-child-slaves-zdq0mf95scb (accessed 1st August 2018).
[3] “Boko Haram threatens to kidnap Christian women in Nigeria”, Barnabus Fund, 9th March 2012, https://www.barnabasfund.org/en/news/BokoHaramthreatenstokidnapChristianwomeninNigeria (accessed 31st July 2018)
[4] “Nigeria: Chibok anniversary a chilling reminder of Boko Haram’s ongoing scourge of abductions”, Amnesty International, 13th April 2017, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/04/nigeria-chibok-anniversary-a-chilling-reminder-of-boko-harams-ongoing-scourge-of-abductions/ (accessed 1st August 2018).
[5] “Girls held by Boko Haram need support to rebuild shattered lives”, UNICEF Niheria Media Centre, 18th October 2016, https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/media_10782.html (accessed 31st July 2018)