By Anugrah Kumar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia has charged two women who returned from Syria this month with crimes against humanity over their alleged roles in the Islamic State\u2019s system of sexual slavery, joining a small group of nations prosecuting citizens for enslavement offenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among them is Germany, where an IS member is serving 14 years after being convicted in a case involving an enslaved 5-year-old Yazidi girl chained outside in scorching heat until she died while her mother, also held as a slave, was forced to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kawsar Abbas, 53, faces charges of enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and engaging in slave trading, according to\u00a0ABC News. The other woman, Zeinab Ahmad, 31, is charged with enslavement and use of a slave. A third woman faces terror-related offenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The charges each carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and are being brought for the first time under Division 268 of Australia\u2019s Criminal Code, which covers crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner James Cockayne said the proceedings would mark the first time an Australian court explored IS\u2019s system of chattel slavery in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis will be the first exploration of this kind of chattel slavery, which [IS] really revived after about 150 years of not seeing it around the world,\u201d he told ABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IS abducted and enslaved thousands of Yazidi women and children after invading northern Iraq in 2014, administering the system through ledgers, sales contracts and religious manuals governing the ownership, trade and abuse of captives. Australia recognized those atrocities as genocide in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of more than 41,000 international citizens from 80 countries affiliated with IS, 4,761 were women, according to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. An estimated 30 to 40 of those women came from Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IS\u2019 all-female\u00a0Al-Khansa brigade\u00a0enforced dress codes, accompanied men on raids and helped control female captives, with some reportedly running brothels of Yazidi sex slaves. IS documents and testimony indicated some women were permitted to own slaves themselves, with IS pamphlets stating women affiliated with the group held a legal right to slave ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One rule specified that a man could not have sexual relations with a female slave if his wife owned her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany led the world\u2019s first prosecutions for IS crimes against Yazidis in 2021, using universal jurisdiction laws allowing prosecution of international crimes committed abroad. In one case, a member identified in court documents only as Jennifer W. was convicted of a crime against humanity for failing to prevent the death of an enslaved 5-year-old Yazidi girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her husband, Taha al-J., was separately convicted for chaining the child outside in scorching heat until she died while the girl\u2019s mother, also held as a slave by the couple, was forced to watch. After an appeal, Jennifer W.\u2019s sentence was increased from 10 to 14 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n