ISIS sells women & girls into sexual slavery for 'as little as a pack of cigarettes'

The United Nations envoy on sexual violence

detailed Monday how Islamic State militants are

selling teenage girls into sexual slavery and

inflicting horrific sexual violence on female

abductees.

Zainab Bangura met with women and girls in April

who had escaped from areas controlled by the

insurgent group, and this week talked about what

she had heard.

She explained how large groups of abducted girls

were kept in cramped conditions, subjected to

abuse and assigned monetary value by a group of

militants before being sold. In one case, a 15-

year-old girl was sold off to an IS leader in his

50's who taunted her desire to commit suicide

before raping her.

In some cases, teenage girls were sold in IS

militant slave markets for "as little as a pack of

cigarettes," said Bangura. The group continues to

run this slave trade as they abduct more women

and girls in the territory they take over, she

explained.

Bangura's accounts are the latest in IS' well-

documented history of abhorrent sexual violence

against women. A Human Rights Watch report

released in April documented systematic rape and

forced marriage of Yazidi minority women. Women

and girls who escape also face continuing trauma

from their experiences, and largely lack the

psychosocial support required.

Yazidi religious leader Baba Sheikh has issued

repeated calls for acceptance and reintegration

of survivors of IS abuse, something that Bangura

praised on Monday.

The UN has repeatedly condemned the use of

sexual violence by IS, with Bangura stating last

month that the group has "institutionalized sexual

violence and the brutalization of women as a

central aspect of their ideology and operations,

using it as a tactic of terrorism to advance their

key strategic objectives.”

The group uses abducted women to attract young

male foreign fighters who make up a significant

portion of its forces, according to analysts. IS has

also issued commandments and pamphlets on the

proper protocol for slavery under its

interpretation of Islamic Law.

Bangura stated that the exact number of women

and girls enslaved by IS militants is not currently

known.