"My eldest daughter was screaming"

Dear Murat, "As they were capturing us, my eldest daughter was screaming. She was shouting at them, 'I will never go with you!' After they took her outside, they closed the door and she disappeared."1  Naseema is one of the many people in Iraq mourning the loss of loved ones who have been enslaved by ISIS. Over the past few months, the extremist group has captured an estimated 5,000 women and children, and forced them into sexual slavery and "marriages" to fighters.2 Walk Free activists are about to deliver petitions in Spain and New Zealand, which have joined the United Nations Security Council in 2015, calling for this awful situation to be referred to the International Criminal Court. At the moment we have a list of 216,645 names -- before we hit print, can you take a moment to add yours, and join us in speaking out about slavery under ISIS in Iraq?

Slavery is such a significant part of ISIS’s agenda that the group has published a pamphlet on the subject, which includes instructions such as, "It is permissible to buy, sell, or give as a gift female captives and slaves, for they are merely property, which can be disposed of."3

If members of the United Nations Security Council refer this situation to the International Criminal Court, it will give us a chance to start to secure justice for the thousands of people enslaved by ISIS, and the families they’ve been forced to leave behind.

If, like us, you’ve heard about slavery in Iraq and wondered what you can do, please take action now.

The people of Iraq are counting on the international community to act. We only have a short amount of time left before we deliver the petition, so as soon as you’ve signed your name, please ask your friends and family to do the same.

In solidarity,

The whole Walk Free team

1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/23/angelina-jolie-yazidi-film_n_6727246.html

2 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/vian-dakhil-iraq-isis-yazidi-women

3 http://www.memrijttm.org/islamic-state-isis-releases-pamphlet-on-female-slaves.html