Islamic State gives jihadis sex slavery manual

The Islamic State group has began disseminating pamphlets detailing guidelines for the enslavement of non-Muslim women and children, including when it is permissible to rape children, according to a US-based watchdog.

The pamphlets, which according to CNN were distributed after Friday prayers in the city of Mosul, a northern Iraqi currently occupied by the jihadist group, permit the ownership of non-Muslim women and children and explicitly endorse physical violence, chattel slavery, rape and child molestation, among other offenses.

The publication, titled “Question and Answers on Female Slaves and their Freedom,” is presented in a question-answer format and was believed to be first disseminated electronically by pro-Islamic State Twitter accounts in October or November according to MEMRI, a Middle Eastern media watchdog group based in Washington, DC.

The practice of sexual slavery among the Islamic State has been documented in the past, with a video released last month showing Islamic State fighters openly haggling over female captives.

Using justification from their interpretation of the Quran, the pamphlet permits sexual intercourse with captive women, and permitting slave owners to engage in sexual intercourse with children: “It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn’t reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse; however if she is not fit for intercourse, then it is enough to enjoy her without intercourse.”

The pamphlet later delineates the rules of when it is permissible to have sex with virgin and non-virgin captives.

It further defines the parameters of ownership, the buying and selling of slave women and “property” rights.

The Islamic State group is thought to have captured thousands of slaves, including hundreds of Yazidi women taken captive in Iraqi Kurdistan in August 2014.

The pamphlet lays out different types of beatings permissible, including for discipline, but forbids a type of violence called “breaking beating,” beating for gratification or for torture, or hitting the face.

The act of running away from one’s “master” is described as being “among the gravest of sins.”

The IS screed also outlines who may be enslaved, including “non-believer” women from non-Islamic Abraham religions like Judaism and Christianity and polytheists.

According to the British Sunday Times, some 5,000-7,000 Yazidi girls and women were captured by the Islamic State group during the August assault on the town of Sinjar, citing a member of an advocacy group familiar with the community.

The Sunday report detailed that a number of Yazidi women who have escaped captivity from the Islamic State have verified widespread human rights abuses and a culture of routine sexual assault.