A new report by Aid to the Church in Need (CAN), titled “Hear Her Cries: the kidnapping, forced conversion and sexual victimization of Christian women and girls”, details the global phenomenon of persecuting Christian females. Christian women and girls are often the victims in Muslim-majority countries, particularly in the Middle East.
The report details in part the years of the Islamic State’s rule and the terrorist group’s enslavement of thousands of women, many of whom were Christian. Christian women, namely in Iraq and Syria though also seen in Lebanon and Jordan, suffered from forced conversion, forced marriages, torture and rape. Even for those who survived the ISIS violence, their trauma is not over. Christian female survivors must live with the consequences of the actions committed against them.
One reparation of this is the Yazidi Survivors Law, which is meant to serve those who suffered under the genocide. However, it notably omits children born as a result of Islamic State sexual violence and the needs of their mothers.
Christian women live as minorities in the Middle East, facing varying ranges of persecution. The kidnapping and sexual victimization of Christians is not over merely because of the defeat of the Islamic State. Strong tribal ties in certain regions of the Middle East subject women to persecution for conversions to Christianity.
