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Cash Crunch: Islamic State Fighters Selling ‘Sex Slaves’ Online After Consistent Attacks From Coalition Forces Takes Toll On Finances

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 06:34 PST, May 30, 2016

The heightened attacks on Iraq and Syria by coalition forces have taken its financial toll on the Islamic State. According to human rights groups and terrorism experts, female captives are now been sold and traded for food and medicine, the Washington Post is reporting.

Social media sites frequented by Islamic State fighters have now become outlets for bartering over sex slaves and sourcing out guidelines on how to deal with them. The topics include how severely a slave can be beaten and if it is right to have sex with prepubescent prisoners — Islamic State legal experts say yes it is.

On May 20, two pictures of unidentified women appeared on Facebook. Before this time, there were no instances of Islamic State fighters offering their female prisoners for sale. The posts were blotted out by Facebook, but not before they were captured by a Washington nonprofit group that scrutinizes jihadists’ social media accounts, Middle East Media Research Institute.

The institute’s executive director, Steven Stalinsky, described the depths to which ISIS has stooped when it comes to the slave trade.

“We have seen a great deal of brutality, but the content that ISIS has been disseminating over the past two years has surpassed it all for sheer evil … sales of slave girls on social media is just one more example of this.”

In one of the posts, a young woman around 18 with dark bangs that droop onto her face is pictured. She tries an unconvincing smile, but the hurt in her eyes is glaring. A posting reads “to all the bros thinking about buying a slave, this one is $8, 0000.” A second post of a young woman with weepy red eyes is posted a few hours later. The posting reads “another sabiyah (slave) also about $8,000, yay or nay?” The posts are linked to an Islamic State fighter called Abu Assad Almani.

It is unclear if Almani was doing the selling or sharing on social media other women slaves that have been sold by other Islamic State fighters.

This development underlines what experts have deemed the increasingly terrifying existence of hundreds of women being held as sex slaves by the terrorist sect. Almani is allegedly a German national, fighting for the Islamic State. His posts show that he is familiar with the activities of the terrorist group in Raqqa, the unofficial capital of the Islamic State. He also uses his social media accounts to seek donations for the group.

Almani asked his Facebook friends if the $8,000 asking price was good value for money. Some of his friends chastised him for posting pictures of women who were not wearing a veil, others said they were ugly. One of his Facebook friends asked “what makes her worth that price … does she have an exceptional skill?” to which Almani replies, “supply and demand makes her that price.”

Members of the Islamic State are notorious for using Facebook and Twitter to preach their propaganda and reel in new recruits. Facebook and Twitter have garnered plenty of plaudits for reacting quickly and shutting down these accounts. However, the terrorists are known for their nimbleness, opening new accounts as soon as previous ones are closed down.

This recent incident comes on the heels of complaints from human rights groups who say there is waning public attention towards the plight of prisoners being held by the terrorist group. According to the Human Rights Watch, over 1,800 women and girls captured from Yazidi towns are being held by the Islamic State.

The Islamic State has always denied this, but came out justifying their actions with old Islamic traditions which allegedly allow non-Muslims captured in battle to be kept against their will and used as slaves. A report by the Human Rights Watch recounted the harrowing ordeal suffered by dozens of Syrian and Iraqi women who escaped the Islamic State. Some of the women were Yazidi, all of them told tales of beatings, multiple rapes and being sold or traded.

[Image via Shutterstock/GongTo]

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