Five Yezidi women recognized as ‘victims’ of ISIS financers’ widow

"We look forward to continuing our pursuit of justice for our clients and to ensuring that the rights conferred upon them by US law are recognized and protected."
An aerial picture shows mourners gathering around coffins wrapped with the Iraqi flag during a mass funeral for Yazidi victims of the Islamic State (IS) group village of Kojo in Sinjar district ,Feb. 6, 2021. (Photo: Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP)
An aerial picture shows mourners gathering around coffins wrapped with the Iraqi flag during a mass funeral for Yazidi victims of the Islamic State (IS) group village of Kojo in Sinjar district ,Feb. 6, 2021. (Photo: Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recognized five Yezidi women as victims in the years-long case against the Islamic State (ISIS) wife Nisreen Assad Ibrahim Bahar (known by her nom de guerre “Umm Sayyaf”) on Oct. 15.

The five women were enslaved by Umm Sayyaf and her late husband, the ISIS financier Abu Sayyaf, in their home in the northeastern Syrian town of Al-Shaddadi, where they subjected the women to multiple abuses. 

US and Kurdish forces killed Abu Sayyaf in a special operations raid on May 15, 2015, and captured his widow. The US filed a criminal complaint against her for providing material support to ISIS but not for her crimes against those women. 

The US has now finally recognized the women as victims of those grave abuses over six years later. 

The renowned lawyer Amal Clooney represented them. 

“The women survived egregious crimes committed by Umm Sayyaf and her husband, Abu Sayyaf, an ISIL senior leader, as part of ISIL’s campaign to eradicate the Yazidi people,” said their representatives, Amal Clooney, the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, in a statement released on Friday. 

“The Sayyafs enslaved the Yazidi girls at their home in Al-Shaddadi, Syria. While enslaved, they, along with other Yazidis and a captured American aid worker, Kayla Mueller, were subjected to torture, rape, beatings, and starvation,” the statement added. 

Furthermore, the statement continued, “Umm Sayyaf routinely prepared and led the women and girls to be raped by ISIL militants, including by Umm Sayyaf’s husband and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader and self-proclaimed caliph of ISIL.” 

“Kayla was reportedly killed, and Inas was never seen again.” 

The US government had failed to recognize the five women as victims of crime under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA), denying them their statutory rights. 

“Moreover, for years, the US Government did not turn over key information to the Yazidi women regarding the proceedings against Umm Sayyaf in the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) despite repeated requests,” the statement said. 

That all changed after the victims filed a motion last April “requesting recognition as crime victims under the CVRA and relevant information about Umm Sayyaf and the proceedings against her that the US Government finally conceded that these women are crime victims under the CVRA.” 

Previously, the US government had maintained that since Sayyaf was not extradited to the US and is serving a life sentence in Iraq for her crimes, it couldn’t extend the CVRA to her, meaning the crimes perpetrated against the Yezidi women remained unrecognized for years. 

Zainab Ahmad, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, said these results “are important steps in an ongoing process to ensure that our clients receive justice for egregious crimes committed against them by Umm Sayyaf.” 

“We look forward to continuing our pursuit of justice for our clients and to ensuring that the rights conferred upon them by US law are recognized and protected,” she added.