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Islamic State issues rules on when it’s OK to rape women and girls

Posted at 10:40 AM, Dec 29, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-29 13:28:32-05

The Islamic State has issued guidelines on when it’s OK for members of the extremist group or “owners,” to have sexual relations with enslaved women and girls.

According to the Huffington Post, the ruling, or fatwa, is an apparent effort to curb what the group called “violations in the treatment of captured females.”

The ruling gives insight into how the group is trying to interpret teachings from centuries ago to justify raping women and sexual slavery, according to the Huffington Post.

Click here to read ISIL’s fatwa on “intercourse” with female captives

These guidelines were just part of the large amount of documents U.S. Special Operatins Forces seized in a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria back in May.

Reuters has reviewed this document and others that have not previously been published but has not confirmed their authenticity.

According to Reuters, the fatwa places bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as “part of a joint ownership.”

It lists 15 injunctions, which in some instances go into explicit detail.

However, Reuters reported the fatwa also instructs owners of female slaves to “show compassion toward her, be kind to her, not humiliate her, and not assign her work she is unable to perform.”

It states that an owner should also not sell her to an individual whom he knows will mistreat her.

The United Nations has accused the Islamic State of the “systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12,” according to Reuters. The UN said it believes many women and girl have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

It appears the Islamic State doesn’t try to conceal the practice but boasts about it, saying it has a “war spoils” department to manage the sex slaves.

MORE: Read more from Reuters here.