UN: ISIS Killing Educated Women, Especially Politicians; Already Killed 3 Female Lawyers This Month
The United Nations warned on Tuesday that ISIS militants are executing educated women within the territories it controls, reporting that the militants have already executed three female lawyers this month.
UN spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that numerous women living in ISIS strongholds, especially in the Iraqi city of Mosul, have recently been killed by ISIS militants and added that educated women are especially in danger.
"Educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office seem to be particularly at risk," Shamdasani said. "In just the first two weeks of this year, reports indicated three female lawyers were executed."
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ISIS' targeting of educated women, especially former political candidates, is not new. In November, ISIS militants in Mosul shot two women in the back of the head, both of whom ran for Iraqi political office earlier last year.
Mosul residents told NBC News that the two women were detained by militants for 45 days and were executed by the orders of ISIS' Islamic court. In September, another female who ran for Iraqi political office was killed in Mosul.
"ISIS fighters do not care if those candidates are Sunni or Christians or Shiites," a source told NBC News. "Since this person was trying to be part of the government, he or she is a target. They do not care if this person is a female, all are considered as targets. They have no respect for mankind at all."
The Islamic State does not hide from its cruel mistreatment of women. Along with the fact that it subjects thousands of religious minority women to sex slavery, ISIS leadership views the role of women in the caliphate to be solely a supporting role, not a leadership role.
According to ISIS rhetoric, women are supposed to provide for their jihadi husband and help them prepare for jihad. The Islamic State created a special media wing in November, called the Zora foundation, that releases propaganda pieces informing women how to be good "wives of jihad."
In December, the militant group executed over 150 women and girls, including some pregnant women, solely because they refused to become sex slaves.
The Islamic State has also justified many of the executions of civilians within its stronghold as forms of enforcement of their strict brand of Sharia law, which limits the individual liberty of everyone in the caliphate.
As more and more is reported about the different acts that ISIS considers to be a violation of their religious law and punishable by death, some violations that victims are being executed for arbitrary reasons.
According to the Daily Mail, ISIS militants have recently arrested 15 pigeon breeders and have executed three of them in the eastern province of Diyala, as the militants are now deeming the act of raising birds to be in violation of Islamic law.
Abu Abdullahm, an Iraqi farmer, told the news site that his 21-year-old son, who is one of the 15 men arrested for pigeon breeding, was arrested earlier this week after ISIS militants barged into his home and kidnapped him.
Abdullahm added that the militants searched his property for pigeons and when they found the birds they put them in bag and lit the bag on fire.
"We are helpless and hopeless. I know they will kill [my son] sooner or later," Abdullahm asserted. "I'm waiting for someone to tell me he was killed, and the only thing I will do is take his body and bury it."
Although pigeon breeding is a popular pastime for many in the region, militants have ruled the hobby a violation of Islamic law because it is a distraction from worshipping Allah.
Another violation that ISIS sees as a distraction from worship and has ruled a violation of Islamic law is watching soccer games. Last week, 13 teen boys were arrested and later executed by firing squad because they were caught watching the Iraq vs. Jordan Asian Cup soccer match, the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported.
ISIS has also enacted cruel punishments for sodomy, or homosexual acts. Last week in Mosul, the terrorist group executed two gay men by throwing them off the top of an extremely tall building in front of large crowd. In December, ISIS executed another gay man by hurling him off the roof of an apartment building in the town of Wilayat al-Furat.
