RAW in War (Reach All Women in WAR) calls on the international community, the United Nations and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to do their utmost to stop Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from committing atrocities against the civilian population and to stop waging a war against women. Members of ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Yazidi, are being kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, or sold as slaves and frequently killed. 

Thousands of Iraq’s Yazidis, driven from their homes by Islamic State and trapped in the siege of Mt. Sinjar, have captured the world’s attention and received some relief from humanitarian aid. While many of the men had been killed, hundreds of Yazidi women taken by Islamic State and held in prison where they have been tortured, raped and sold into slavery are facing an equally dire fate. Survivors who managed to escape from Islamic State say the women held in its prison in Mosul face two prospects: those who convert to Islam are sold as brides to Islamist fighters for prices as low as $25, and ranging up to $150. Those who do not convert face daily rape and a certain death.

The crimes committed against minorities, such as the Yazidi people in North Iraq, may result in genocide if they are not stopped without delay. While there are many reports of a widespread regime of terror that has been introduced by Islamic State in the areas under its control, ethnic and religious minorities face the brunt of the war, as Islamic State’s actions are directed towards wiping out these communities in Iraq and Syria.

Human Rights organizations working in the region, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented mass executions and the detention of hundreds of women, children and men, the fate of many of whom remains unknown. 

Women activists are particularly targeted. In September Islamic State armed men publicly executed Samira Salih al-Nuaimi, a human rights lawyer and activist because of Facebook posts critical of the group's destruction of religious sites.Gunmen with the group's newly declared police force seized Samira Salih al-Nuaimi in Mosul while she was home with her husband and three children, tortured her for five days and publicly executed her by a masked firing squad in central Mosul. 

Al-Nuaimi's death is the latest in a string of attacks by the armed group to silence women activists and politicians. According to the UN, in July in the town of Sderat, Islamic State broke into the house of a female candidate in the last provincial council elections, killed her and abducted her husband. On the same day, another female politician was abducted from her home in eastern Mosul; she remains missing. At least five women political activists have been killed in recent weeks by Islamic State in Mosul.

RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in WAR) www.rawinwar.org  presents the annual Anna Politkovskaya Award to exceptional women human rights defenders from war and conflict in the world, who stand for the victims of the conflict, often at great personal risk. On the eve of 7 October, to mark the anniversary of her murder and to honour journalist Anna Politkovskaya and other courageous women like her in the world, RAW in WAR presented the 2014 Anna Politkovskaya Award to the courageous Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil on behalf of all Yazidi and Iraqi women besieged by Islamic State.

Please join RAW in WAR in our call to the United Nations and to all governments and political leaders who have influence over the armed group: 

1) to do their utmost to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing;

2) to provide protection and support to Iraqi women human rights defenders, activists and local politicians targeted by the armed group on the territory controlled by Islamic State;

3) to secure the immediate release of the hundreds of Yazidi and other minority women detained, abused and sold into slavery by Islamic State;

4) to coordinate efforts to stop Islamic State receiving further funding and recruiting young people from around the world

5) to protect the victims of the conflict, including by providing sufficient aid for refugees and by granting asylum and refugee status to those who manage to flee the violence; 

6) to urge the Iraqi government to ensure that previous mistakes which have led to an alienation of ethnic groups in Iraq are not repeated;

7) to promote tolerance and equality of men and women of all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq

For more information, visit RAW in WAR's website, or join us on Facebook or Twitter