Analytic Memo 10: Slaves of ISIS

Image source: Twitter post by Zehra Duman (aka Umm Addullatif) on March 18, 2015

by Dack Anderson, Lead Security Consultant

As part of my academic journey at Pikes Peak State College, I had the opportunity to study ESA4010: Terrorism Threat & Risk Analysis in 2022, a critical course that deepened my understanding of terrorism-related threats, emergency response strategies, and analytical methods. Under the guidance of Professor Woody Boyd, I conducted extensive research using structured assessment models to analyze whether ISIS remains a threat to the United States.

This tenth annex explores the Islamic State’s institutional use of slavery and human trafficking as a strategic tool for ideological enforcement, population control, and operational financing. It examines how ISIS weaponized sexual violence, codified enslavement practices, and manipulated religious doctrine to justify atrocities against vulnerable populations.

Key Findings

Though modern-day slavery is publicly condemned across the globe, ISIS remains a rare exception, brazenly flaunting its practices. Escapee accounts and investigative reports reveal an organized system of sexual assault, rape, forced marriage, and slavery (Roth, 2015). The group’s Salafi-jihadist interpretation of Islam underpins its systematic abduction and exploitation of non-Muslim populations, particularly the Yazidis. ISIS’s strategy to establish a caliphate includes slavery as a core socioeconomic mechanism. As Al-Dayel, Mumford, and Bales (2020) explain, slavery was not incidental; it was foundational! The group operated open-air slave markets in Raqqa, Syria, and displayed captives online. These transactions occurred in designated buildings called souk sabaya, or “female slave markets.”

ISIS’s “rape theology” is threefold:

• Religious Justification: Selective Qur’anic citations were used to portray slavery as divinely sanctioned.

• Population Expansion: Captives were included in the caliphate’s civilian population, contributing to its demographic growth.

• Legal Codification: Sales contracts were drafted and upheld in ISIS courts, reinforcing the group’s claim to sovereignty and legitimacy (Al-Dayel, Mumford, & Bales, 2020).

  
  

Female captives were typically “processed” within 72 hours of capture. Elderly women were often executed in front of their families. Male children aged 8–12 were renamed and sent to military training camps, while older males were either executed or forced into labor (Al-Dayel & Mumford, 2020). The trauma extended beyond captivity. Survivors returning home faced rejection from their communities, especially mothers of children fathered by ISIS fighters. Village elders often refused to reintegrate these children, forcing women to choose between family ties and their offspring (Arraf, 2021). Mental health studies reveal widespread psychological distress, including PTSD, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among survivors (Taha & Slewa-Younan, 2020).

Meaning of Findings

ISIS’s brutality against non-believers is not just ideological. It is operational. The group targets males of fighting age for execution or forced labor, while females, often preadolescent, are enslaved to produce the next generation of fighters and supporters. Slavery serves both as a population control mechanism and a recruitment incentive. By embedding slavery into its governance model, ISIS reinforces its theological narrative and rewards loyalty. The group’s defiance of international norms and its public celebration of sexual violence are deliberate provocations meant to challenge Western moral authority and assert its own version of religious purity.

Assessment of Findings

This memo presents one of the most disturbing dimensions of ISIS’s operational framework. Civilian women were forced into sexual slavery, sold in markets, gifted to fighters, or held in “rest houses” for field troops. The psychological toll on survivors is immense and long-lasting.

A multi-directional response is required, one that addresses not only ISIS’s military capabilities but also its ideological infrastructure and human rights violations. As noted throughout this series, ISIS is intelligent, malleable, persistent, and pervasive. But its savagery must also be acknowledged and countered with equal resolve.

References

Al-Dayel, N., & Mumford, A. (2020, January 27). ISIS and Their Use of Slavery. Retrieved from International Centre for Counter-Terrorism: Publications: https://icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-of-slavery/ 

Al-Dayel, N., Mumford, A., & Bales, K. (2020, February 4). Not Yet Dead: The Establishment and Regulation of Slavery by the Islamic State. Retrieved from Taylor & Francis Online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1057610X.2020.1711590 

Arraf, J. (2021, May 28). ISIS Forced Them Into Sexual Slavery. Finally, They’ve Reunited With Their Children. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/world/middleeast/yazidi-isis-slaves-children.html 

Roth, K. (2015, September 15). Slavery: The ISIS Rules. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/05/slavery-isis-rules 

Strasser, F. (2016, October 6). ISIS Makes Sex Slavery Key Tactic of Terrorism. Retrieved from United States Institute of Peace: https://www.usip.org/publications/2016/10/isis-makes-sex-slavery-key-tactic-terrorism

Taha, P. H., & Slewa-Younan, S. (2020, November 10). Measures of depression, generalized anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorders amongst Yazidi female survivors of ISIS slavery and violence. Retrieved from International Journal of Mental Health Systems: https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13033-020-00412-4