Slavery in 21st-century jihadism

Short description: Modern slavery by quasi-state-level jihadist groups

This page is about slavery in 21st-century Islamism. For other uses, see Islam and slavery (disambiguation).

Nadia Murad, a prominent Yazidi human rights activist and survivor of ISIS sexual slavery, delivers remarks at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Template:Slavery Quasi-state-level jihadist groups, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have captured and enslaved women and children, often for sexual slavery.[1][2] In 2014 in particular, both groups organised mass kidnappings of large numbers of girls and younger women.[3][4]

## Contents

* 1 Enslavement
* 1.1 Boko Haram
* 1.2 ISIS
* 2 Historical background
* 2.1 Medieval to modern period
* 2.2 Abolition period
* 3 21st-century Islamist revival
* 3.1 ISIS
* 3.2 Boko Haram
* 3.3 Allied Democratic Forces
* 4 See also
* 5 Notes
* 6 Citations

## Enslavement

### Boko Haram

The first report of slave-taking by Boko Haram was on 13 May 2013 when a video was released of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau saying his group had taken women and children - including teenage girls - hostage in response to the arrest of its members' wives and children.[5]

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 echoed kidnappings of girls and young women for sexual use by Algerian Islamists in the 1990s and early 2000s, and may reflect influence by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.[3][6]

According to a community leader from Borno state quoted by the BBC, some 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 habitual sex slave."[7]

### ISIS

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
SOURCE: Zainab Bangura,
UN special envoy on
sexual violence in conflict.[8]

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.[9][10] 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.[4] Yazidi are a small minority who practice a religion based on "a mix of Christian, Islamic, and ancient Mesopotamian beliefs".[8]

According to reports endorsed as credible by The Daily Telegraph, virgins among the captured women were selected and given to commanders as sexual slaves.[11] 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."[12][13]

In April 2015, Zainab Bangura, the United Nations special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, visited Iraq and was given 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."[8]

## Historical background

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### Medieval to modern period

Main articles: Religion:History of slavery in the Muslim world, History of concubinage in the Muslim world, Black Sea slave trade, and Concubinage in Islam

Female slavery was common during the medieval Arab slave trade, where prisoners of war captured in battle from non-Arab lands often ended up as sex slaves, concubines (who are considered free when their master dies - Umm al-walad - if they give birth to a child acknowledged by him).[14]

### Abolition period

Main articles: Religion:Islamic views on slavery, Muhammad and slavery, Ma malakat aymanukum, and Mukataba

Chattel slavery survived longest in the Middle East, and was eventually banned during the 20th-century due to pressure from Western nations and international bodies such as the UN. After the Trans-Atlantic slave trade had been suppressed, the ancient Trans-Saharan slave trade, the Indian Ocean slave trade and the Red Sea slave trade continued to traffic slaves from the African continent to the Middle East. During the 20th century, the issue of chattel slavery was addressed and investigated globally by international bodies created by the League of Nations and the United Nations, such as the Temporary Slavery Commission in 1924–1926, the Committee of Experts on Slavery in 1932, and the Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery in 1934–1939.[15] By the time of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery in 1950–1951, legal chattel slavery still existed only in the Arabian Peninsula: in Oman, in Qatar, in Saudi Arabia, in the Trucial States and in Yemen.[15] Legal chattel slavery was finally abolished in the Arabian Peninsula in the 1960s: Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 1962, in Dubai in 1963, and Oman as the last in 1970.[15]

Earlier in the 20th century, Islamist authors declared slavery outdated without actually clearly affirming and promoting its abolition. This has caused at least one scholar (William Clarence-Smith[16]) to criticize the notable "evasions and silences of Muhammad Qutb" and the "dogged refusal of Abul A'la Maududi to give up on slavery".[17][18]

Sayyid Qutb.

Sayyid Qutb, a leading scholar of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood wrote in his tafsir (commentary of the Quran) that slavery was a way of handling prisoners-of-war and it "was necessary for Islam to adopt a similar line of practise until the world devised a new code of practise during war other than enslavement".[19] Qutb's brother and promoter, Muhammad Qutb, vigorously defended Islamic slavery, telling his audience that "Islam gave spiritual enfranchisement to slaves" and "in the early period of Islam the slave was exalted to such a noble state of humanity as was never before witnessed in any other part of the world."[20] He contrasted the adultery, prostitution,[21] and (what he called) "that most odious form of animalism" casual sex that are found in Europe,[22] with (what he called) "that clean and spiritual bond that ties a maid [i.e. slave girl] to her master in Islam."[21]

Abul A'la Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami in the early 20th century, meanwhile wrote:

> Islam has clearly and categorically forbidden the primitive practice of capturing a free man, to make him a slave or to sell him into slavery. On this point the clear and unequivocal words of [Muhammad] are as follows:

>> There are three categories of people against whom I shall myself be a plaintiff on the Day of Judgement. Of these three, one is he who enslaves a free man, then sells him and eats this money" (al-Bukhari and Ibn Majjah).

> The words of this Tradition of the Prophet are also general, they have not been qualified or made applicable to a particular nation, race, country or followers of a particular religion.....After this the only form of slavery which was left in Islamic society was the prisoners of war, who were captured on the battlefield. These prisoners of war were retained by the Muslim Government until their government agreed to receive them back in exchange for Muslim soldiers captured by them.....[23]

According to some scholars,[24] there has been a "reopening" of the issue of slavery by some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars after its "closing" earlier in the 20th century when Muslim countries banned slavery and "most Muslim scholars" found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality."[25][26]

## 21st-century Islamist revival

In response to the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram's Quranic justification for kidnapping and enslaving people,[27][28] and ISIL's religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women as spoils of war as claimed in their digital magazine Dabiq,[29][30][31][32][33][34] 126 Islamic scholars from around the Muslim world, in late September 2014, signed an open letter to the Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, rejecting his group's interpretations of the Qur'an and hadith to justify its actions.[35][36][n 1] The letter accuses the group of instigating fitna – sedition – by instituting slavery under its rule in contravention of the anti-slavery consensus of the Islamic scholarly community.[37]

### ISIS

According to CNN and The Economist, the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant "justifies its kidnapping of women as sex slaves citing Islamic theology." An article entitled, 'The revival (of) slavery before the Hour,' (of Judgement Day), published in the ISIL online magazine, Dabiq, claimed that Yazidi women can be taken captive and forced to become sex slaves or concubines under Islamic law, "[o]ne should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar -- the infidels -- and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law."[4][38][39]

It not only justified the taking of slaves but declared that those who "deny or mock" the verses of the Koran or hadith that justified it were apostates from Islam, asserting that concubinage is specifically justified in the Koran:

> Yazidi women and children [are to be] divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations [in northern Iraq] … Enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam.[40]

Another article in Dabiq rebuked supporters of ISIS who had denied ISIS had taken slaves "as if the soldiers of the Khilafah had committed a mistake or evil," and promised "slave markets will be established."[41]

ISIL appealed to apocalyptic beliefs and "claimed justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world."[42] In late 2014, ISIL released a pamphlet on the treatment of female slaves.[43][44][45][46][47]

### Boko Haram

Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist group, said in an interview "I shall capture people and make them slaves" when claiming responsibility for the 2014 Chibok kidnapping.[27] Shekau has justified his actions by appealing to the Quran saying "[w]hat we are doing is an order from Allah, and all that we are doing is in the Book of Allah that we follow."[48]

### Allied Democratic Forces

In April 2023, Nihad Jariri, a senior Al Aan TV journalist, reported on Twitter that according to a leak document, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have engaged in slavery of women and children in Congo.[49]

## See also

* Forced marriage
* History of slavery
* Human trafficking
* Islamic sexual jurisprudence
* Raptio – large scale abduction of women
* Sexual jihad
* Sexual slavery § Present day
* History of concubinage in the Muslim world
* Slavery and religion
* Wartime sexual violence

## Notes

1. ↑ Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian extremist group, said in an interview "I shall capture people and make them slaves" when claiming responsibility for the 2014 Chibok kidnapping. ISIL claimed that the Yazidi are idol worshipers and their enslavement part of the old shariah practice of spoils of war.

## Citations

1. ↑ Spencer, Richard (14 October 2014). "Monday 20 October 2014 Thousands of Yazidis sold as sex slaves, say Isil". Irish Independent. http://www.independent.ie/world-news/middle-east/thousands-of-yazidis-sold-as-sex-slaves-say-isil-30661972.html.
2. ↑ McPhee, Rod. "The schoolgirls stolen as sex slaves by Nigeria's anti-education jihadists Boko Haram". Daily Mirror. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boko-haram-329-schoolgirls-stolen-3489356.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hill, Jonathan N.C. (July 30, 2014). "Boko Haram, the Chibok Abductions and Nigeria's Counterterrorism Strategy". Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/boko-haram-the-chibok-abductions-and-nigerias-counterterrorism-strategy. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 EconomistStaff (October 18, 2014). "Jihadists Boast of Selling Captive Women as Concubines". The Economist. https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21625870-jihadists-boast-selling-captive-women-concubines-have-and-hold.
5. ↑ "Boko Haram timeline: From preachers to slave raiders". BBC News. 15 May 2013. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-22538888.
6. ↑ Marina Lazreg, "Consequences of Political Liberalisation and Sociocultural Mobilisation for Women in Algeria, Egypt and Jordan," in Anne-Marie Goetz, Governing Women: Women's Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratisation and Governance Reform (New York: Routledge/UNRISD, 2009), p. 47.
7. ↑ Ross, Will (8 May 2015). "Nigeria: What next for the rescued Boko Haram captives?". BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32625811.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Yoon, Sangwon (August 3, 2015). "Islamic State Circulates Sex Slave Price Lis". Bloomberg L.P.. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-03/sex-slaves-sold-by-islamic-state-the-younger-the-better.
9. ↑ "Saudi Arabian Buyers Are Shopping For Sex Slaves - At ISIS Auctions!" (in en). indiatimes.com. 28 September 2016. https://www.indiatimes.com/news/world/saudi-arabian-buyers-are-shopping-for-sex-slaves-at-isis-auctions-262564.html.
10. ↑ News, Mirage (17 February 2020). "Modern slavery a national security issue says new study" (in en-AU). Mirage News. https://www.miragenews.com/modern-slavery-a-national-security-issue-says-new-study/.
11. ↑ Sherlock, Ruth (18 October 2014). "Islamic State commanders 'using Yazidi virgins for sex'". The Daily Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11171874/Islamic-State-commanders-using-Yazidi-virgins-for-sex.html.
12. ↑ CALLIMACHI, RUKMINI (13 August 2015). "ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape". The New York Times. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html?_r=0.
13. ↑ see also Semple, Kirk (November 14, 2014). "Yazidi Girls Seized by ISIS Speak Out After Escape". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/world/middleeast/yazidi-girls-seized-by-isis-speak-out-after-escape.html.
14. ↑ "Islam and slavery: Sexual slavery". Bbc.co.uk. https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_1.shtml#section_7.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. USA: AltaMira Press.
16. ↑ "Staff Profile: Professor William Gervase Clarence-Smith". http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staffinfo.cfm?contactid=36.
17. ↑ Clarence-Smith, W. G. (2006). Islam and the Abolition of Slavery. Oxford University Press. pp. 186-188. ISBN 9780195221510. https://archive.org/details/islamabolitionof0000clar. Retrieved 17 August 2015. "clarence-smith muhammad qutb slavery disturbing."
18. ↑ "at p.6 - 'Islam and Slavery' by William Gervase Clarence-Smith". http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/economicHistory/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Islam&SlaveryWGCS.pdf;.
19. ↑ in Fi Zilal al-Qur'an, Surah Tawbah (3/1669) also in Tafsir of Surah Baqarah (/230), tafsir of Surah Mu'minoon (4/2455), tafsir of Surah Muhammad (6/3285)
20. ↑ Qutb, Muhammad, Islam, the Misunderstood Religion , islamicbulletin.org p.27-8
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Qutb, Muhammad, Islam, the Misunderstood Religion , islamicbulletin.org p.41
22. ↑ Qutb, Muhammad, Islam, the Misunderstood Religion, Markazi Maktabi Islami, Delhi-6, 1992 p.50
23. ↑ From "Human Rights in Islam" by 'Allamah Abu Al-'A'la Mawdudi. Chapter 3, subsection 5 [1]
24. ↑ Khaled Abou El Fadl and William Clarence-Smith
25. ↑ Abou el Fadl, Great Theft, HarperSanFrancisco, c2005.
26. ↑ Clarence-Smith, William G.. "Islam and Slavery". http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/economicHistory/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Islam&SlaveryWGCS.pdf.
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Lister, Tim (6 May 2014). "Boko Haram: The essence of terror". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/06/world/africa/nigeria-boko-haram-analysis/.
28. ↑ Ferran, Lee (5 May 2014). "Boko Haram: Kidnappers, Slave-Owners, Terrorists, Killers". ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/boko-haram-kidnappers-slave-owners-terrorists-killers/story?id=23598347.
29. ↑ "Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq," Newsweek, 10-13-2014
30. ↑ Athena Yenko, "Judgment Day Justifies Sex Slavery Of Women – ISIS Out With Its 4th Edition Of Dabiq Magazine," International Business Times-Australia, October 13, 2014
31. ↑ Allen McDuffee, "ISIS Is Now Bragging About Enslaving Women and Children," The Atlantic, Oct 13 2014
32. ↑ Salma Abdelaziz, "ISIS states its justification for the enslavement of women," CNN, October 13, 2014
33. ↑ Richard Spencer, "Thousands of Yazidi women sold as sex slaves 'for theological reasons', says Isil," The Daily Telegraph, 13 Oct 2014.
34. ↑ "To have and to hold: Jihadists boast of selling captive women as concubines," The Economist, Oct 18th 2014
35. ↑ Lauren Markoe (24 September 2013). "Muslim Scholars Release Open Letter to Islamic State Meticulously Blasting Its Ideology". The Huffington Post. Religious News Service. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/muslim-scholars-islamic-state_n_5878038.html.
36. ↑ Smith, Samuel (25 September 2014). "International Coalition of Muslim Scholars Refute ISIS' Religious Arguments in Open Letter to al-Baghdadi". The Christian Post. http://www.christianpost.com/news/international-coalition-of-muslim-scholars-refute-isis-religious-arguments-in-open-letter-to-al-baghdadi-127032/.
37. ↑ "Open Letter to Al-Baghdadi". September 2014. http://lettertobaghdadi.com/index.php.
38. ↑ Abdelaziz, Salma (13 October 2014). "ISIS states its justification for the enslavement of women". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/world/meast/isis-justification-slavery/.
39. ↑ Mathis-Lilly, Ben (14 October 2014). "ISIS Declares Itself Pro-Slavery". Slate. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/10/13/isis_yazidi_slavery_group_s_english_language_publication_defends_practice.html.
40. ↑ Wood, Graeme (March 2015). "What ISIS Really Wants". The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
41. ↑ "Issue 9 Of Islamic State (ISIS) English-Language Magazine 'Dabiq' Article Justifies The Practice Of Taking Women As Slaves". memri. May 22, 2015. http://www.memrijttm.org/islamic-state-isis-english-language-magazine-dabiq-article-justifies-the-practice-of-taking-women-as-slaves.html.
42. ↑ Malas, Nour (November 18, 2014). "Ancient Prophecies Motivate Islamic State Militants: Battlefield Strategies Driven by 1,400-year-old Apocalyptic Ideas". The Wall Street Journal. https://online.wsj.com/articles/ancient-prophecies-motivate-islamic-state-militants-1416357441.
43. ↑ Smith, Amelia (September 12, 2014). "ISIS Publish Pamphlet On How to Treat Female Slaves". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/isis-release-questions-and-answers-pamphlet-how-treat-female-slaves-290511.
44. ↑ Greg Botelho, CNN (12 December 2014). "ISIS: Enslaving, having sex with 'unbelieving' women, girls is OK - CNN.com". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/12/world/meast/isis-justification-female-slaves/.
45. ↑ Katharine Lackey (13 December 2014). "Pamphlet provides Islamic State guidelines for sex slaves". USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/13/pamphlet-islamic-state-guidelines-sex-slaves/20359049/.
46. ↑ "Islamic State issues abhorrent sex slavery guidelines about how to treat women". Christian Today. 15 December 2014. http://www.christiantoday.com/article/islamic.state.issues.abhorrent.sex.slavery.guidelines.about.how.to.treat.women/44435.htm.
47. ↑ "Isis releases 'abhorrent' sex slaves pamphlet with 27 tips for militants on taking, punishing and raping female captives". The Independent. 10 December 2014. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-releases-abhorrent-sex-slaves-pamphlet-with-27-tips-for-militants-on-taking-punishing-and-raping-female-captives-9915913.html.
48. ↑ Ferran, Lee (5 May 2014). "Boko Haram: Kidnappers, Slave-Owners, Terrorists, Killers". ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/boko-haram-kidnappers-slave-owners-terrorists-killers/story?id=23598347.
49. ↑ "x.com". https://x.com/NihadJariri/status/1650333781750960128.

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