Slavery in 21st-century jihadism

In the 21st century, many Islamist groups, such as Boko Haram, or ISIS, have captured and enslaved women and children, often for sexual slavery. In 2014 in particular, both groups organised mass kidnappings of large numbers of girls and younger women. They say that they lead a war against "infidels".

The fighters get the enslaved girls and women as a compensation for their fighting to rebuild the Caliphate.

### By Boko Haram

The first report of slave-taking by Boko Haram was on 13 May 2013. At that time,  a video was released. In it, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said his group had taken women and children - including teenage girls - hostage in response to the arrest of its members' wives and children.

According to Islamism expert Jonathan N.C. Hill, Boko Haram began kidnapping large numbers of girls and young women for sexual use in 2014.

The attacks were similar to Algerian Islamists in the 1990s and early 2000s. The group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has probably influenced Boko Haram with this.

The BBC quoted a community leader from  Borno state. He said that some of  captured young women and teenage girls held by Boko Haram have been forced to marry one Boko Haram fighter after another as the fighters are killed. "Any time they go for an operation and one of the fighters is killed they will force the young woman to marry another one. Eventually she becomes a sex slave."

### By ISIS

|colspan="2"|Islamic State price list for women and children slaves|
| --- | --- |
|1–9 years old|$165|
|10–20|$124|
|21–30|$82|
|31–40|$62|
|41–50|$41|
_The Economist_ reports that ISIS (also called "Islamic State") has taken "as many as 2,000 women and children" captive, selling and distributing them as sexual slaves. Some women were reportedly sold via auction and even via online auction to Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Matthew Barber, a scholar of Yazidi history at the University of Chicago, later stated to have compiled a list of 4,800 captured Yazidi women and children, and estimated that the overall number could be up to 7,000. Yazidi are a small minority who practice a religion based on "a mix of Christian, Islamic, and ancient Mesopotamian beliefs".

According to reports _The Daily Telegraph_ said were credible, virgins among the captured women were selected and given to commanders as sexual slaves. According to an August 2015 story in _The New York Times_, "The trade in Yazidi women and girls has created a persistent infrastructure, with a network of warehouses where the victims are held, viewing rooms where they are inspected and marketed, and a dedicated fleet of buses used to transport them."

#### Research about a pamphlet

In April 2015, Zainab Bangura, the United Nations special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, visited Iraq. She received a copy of an Islamic State pamphlet including a list of prices for captured women and children.  According to a story on the list in Bloomberg, the list's authenticity "was established by UN researchers who'd gathered anecdotes on similar slave markets in Islamic State-controlled areas". The captives are non-Muslim minorities, "mostly Arab Christians and Yazidis" who have refused to convert to Islam and whose adult male relatives have been murdered. Bidders for the captive women and children include "the groups own fighters and wealthy Middle Easterners".