Slain Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi held more than ten Yazidi women as slaves, as did all other senior members of the jihadist group, his first wife Asma Mohammed has told Al Arabiya in an exclusive interview.
Mohammed, who is currently being held by Iraqi authorities, revealed horrifying details of the organisation’s obsession with women, turning its so-called caliphate into a regime of female enslavement.
The extremist group perpetrated widespread sexual slavery, forced marriages and indecent abuse against women after seizing large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The testimony of Baghdadi’s third wife and daughter, also detained in Iraq, further highlighted the suffering of Yazidi women at the hands of the extremist group. Baghdadi’s third wife, who was married to him at the age of 14 on the day he declared the caliphate, recounted her experience of living with nine slaves within a week of her marriage. The organisation was transformed into a “marriage unit”, she recalled.
The interviews highlighted a systematic practice of enslavement within ISIS, particularly against the Yazidi community, as confirmed by Baghdadi’s daughter, Umeyme al-Baghdadi. She described living under tight security, and the harrowing conditions of female slaves abducted by ISIS who “cried all the time”.
Following the interviews, Nobel Laureate Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad issued a statement stressing that the wives of ISIS were also perpetrators who facilitated the sexual slavery and genocide of the Yazidi people.
“Al Baghdadi’s wives and other ISIS women are not victims, they must be held accountable for their crimes,” Murad said.
Slamming the Iraqi government, Murad highlighted the lack of public trials of ISIS members in Iraq for sexual slavery or genocide, pointing to the impunity that many, including foreign nationals, still hold.
Murad Ismael, co-founder of the Sinjar Academy, also raised a broader concern about the enduring ideology of ISIS, questioning how many potential perpetrators still hide within society, waiting for opportunities to commit violence. He criticised the media’s reluctance to fully address the Yazidi issue, stressing the importance of acknowledging and exposing the atrocities committed in order to prevent their recurrence.
According to Ismael, Alarabiya conducted the interviews with ISIS women after a change in Saudi Arabia’s attitude towards radical Islam. He argued that Saudi Arabia and countries like Qatar used to support radicalism, but changed their stance when ISIS threatened their regimes and security.
“There is (& was) no intention to expose those who supported and enabled ISIS from different countries, because these same countries are also donors to the UN & every international court out there, to many NGOs working in the field & to many lobbyists who will close any avenue leading to their accountability,” Ismael said.
Criticising the West, he added that despite the establishment of accountability mechanisms such as UNITAD, there was a lack of real will to hold those responsible to account. The formation and power of ISIS was not solely due to radical beliefs, but rather was enabled by external forces, Ismael said.
ISIS attacks against Yazidis in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq began on 3 August 2014. ISIS overran the Yazidi lands, forced young women into sexual and domestic servitude for ISIS fighters, massacred thousands of people and drove the Yazidis out of the area.
The massacre began after the withdrawal of Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga, leaving the Yazidis defenceless.
ISIS was driven from the area on 13 November 2015. Despite ongoing efforts to find them, thousands of Yazidis remain unaccounted for.
Baghdadi was believed to have four wives when he killed himself and two children by detonating a suicide vest during a US-led raid in Idlib, northwest Syria, on 27 October 2019. Baghdadi’s two wives were also killed in the raid, wearing suicide vests that did not detonate.
According to officials, Baghdadi was in Idlib in an attempt to revive ISIS after it lost its remaining territory in the region to US-backed Kurdish-led forces in March 2019.
