The real number of women held captive is not known. Most reports suggest there are hundreds and that most of them are being held in and around Tal Afar, 60 kilometres west of Mosul. Eyewitnesses say there are literally hundreds of Yazidi women there.
Some of the women have been able to escape on their own – a week ago Yazidi spokespeople said that 50 captives managed to make their way to Sinjar mountain. Before that around another 200 were released, due to ransoms paid and also thanks to mediation by local Arab tribes who negotiated the women's release.
A lot of the kidnapped Yazidi women also seem to have been distributed in Baaj, around 120 kilometres west of Mosul, to fighters from the IS group. Doctors at Baaj hospital confirm this, saying they have treated a number of Yazidi women who have suffered at the hands of their captors, subjected to sexual and other physical violence.
“How can sane people do this?” the doctor who spoke to NIQASH said; the doctor had to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “It is a public, collective act of rape. I treated about ten women and I was stunned to find one who was just 13 years old. Her mental and physical health were very bad.”
Anther of the women treated at the hospital is a well-known individual who worked at one of the schools in the Sanouni district in Sinjar.
“When she arrived at the hospital we thought she was dead,” the doctor says. “But she was alive. She had been on a hunger strike after being raped by several of the IS gunmen and if she had not been brought to hospital, I am sure she would be dead by now.”
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