ISIS’s Newest Issue of their English-language Magazine Justifies the Enslavement of Women

Issue 9 of ISIS’s English-language magazine Dabiq includes an article titled “Slave-Girls or Prostitutes”, by Umm Sumayyah Al-Muhajirah, which defends the practice of taking women captured in war, including married women as sex slaves. This horrific article contains religious justification for this practice in the Muslim world, “The right hand’s possession (mulk al-yamīn) are the female captives who were separated from their husbands by enslavement. They became lawful for the one who ends up possessing then even without pronouncement of divorce by their harbī husbands. Sa’īd Ibn Jubayr reported that Ibn ‘Abbās (radiyallāhu ‘anhumā) said, “Approaching any married woman is fornication, except for a woman who has been enslaved”.”

Umm Sumayyah goes on to say that slavery is a divine punishment, “Indeed when slavery befalls a people, then they have left Allahs’s favor, so Allah has no need for them.” At the same time, the author stresses that, even though some “devious and wicked slave-girls” made up false stories and lied about their condition under Muslim captivity, becoming enslaved to a Muslim is actually a blessing for them, because it may lead them to Islam. “Once a female slave embraces Islam, she is freed and her children may even attain great heights.”

Umm Sumayyah then tried to justify enslavement by making a comparison with prostitution in other countries. “Are slave girls who we took by Allah’s command better, or prostitutes- an evil you do not denounce- who are grabbed by quasi men in the lands of kufr when you live? A prostitute in you lands comes and goes, openly committing sin. She lives by selling her honor, within the sight and hearing of the deviant scholars from whom we don’t hear even a faint sound. As for the slave- girl that was taken by the swords of men following the cheerful warrior (Muhammad – sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), then her enslavement is in opposition to human rights and copulation with her is rape?! What is wrong with you? How do you make such a judgment? What is your religion? What is you law?”

This article goes on to insult Michelle Obama, mentioning her as a prospect of being sold at a slave market, “And who knows, maybe Michelle Obama’s price won’t even exceed a third of a dīnār, and a third of a dīnār is too much for her!”

For years ISIS has been enslaving and sexually abusing women it captures, particularly from the Yazidi community. The terrorist group justifies the horrendous sex crimes as Sunnah, a way of life prescribed by Mohammad’s life and the Quran’s teachings.