The fate of thousands of women abducted by ISIS in the Sinjar region of South Kurdistan is still unknown. It is estimated that between one and five thousand Yezidi women and girls were abducted by gangs.

Research is continuing to establish the number of Yezidi women who were abducted in August and what happened to them.

German Green Party Hesse state deputy Mürvet Öztürk, who visited South Kurdistan, has said the number of Yezidi women who were abducted was at least a thousand. The Kurdish MP spoke to the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, criticising the fact that the topic of the abducted woman has not been a subject of debate either in the Middle East or Western countries. Öztürk said that the administration in Kurdistan was more interested in military matters and that the subject of freeing the abducted women was of secondary importance.

“How will we save these women?”

Öztürk said in her interview that: "The West should take an interest and ask where these women are. Have the intelligence organisations any information regarding these women? How will we save these women? Öztürk added that the selling of Yezidi women as 'Moslem brides' was unacceptable, and called on the German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen to take an interest in the issue.

During her visit to South Kurdistan Mürvet Öztürk met Yezidi MP Vian Dakhil. Öztürk said the Women Empowerment Organization had carried out research, clarifying the names of at least 1,300 women who were abducted by ISIS. However, due to the fact that the Yezidis have taken refuge in various different countries and regions it has not been possible to get an exact figure of those abducted.

Either sold as slaves or a ransom demanded

The Greens MP said according to information obtained during a meeting at the Yezidi holy place of Lalesh, the Yezidi girls and women are being sold for between 500 and 1,000 Euros. A ransom of between 5 and 10 thousand Euros is being demanded for the release of girls from more wealthy families.

It is known that many of the girls and women abducted in Sinjar have been forced into religious marriage, and that some have been taken to markets in Mosul or in towns in eastern Syria. According to political parties and associations in South Kurdistan between 2 and 5 thousand Yezidi women were abducted.

The fact many Yezidis took refuge in various towns in South Kurdistan, Rojava and North Kurdistan makes it more difficult to establish the true number of abducted women. According to a study made by American researcher Christine van den Toorn in various refugee camps,  the number of abducted women is at least a thousand.