ISIS brutal tactics to quickly conquer large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq have overshadowed the group's involvement in massive sex trafficking to fund its jihad. Thousands of women have been enslaved, raped, forced into marriages and their female genitals mutilated with little to no public attention to the problem.
A Kurdish activist group made Londoners aware of the problem with multiple protests around the city on Oct. 14, according to Newsweek. The activists held mock sex slave auctions and encouraged pedestrians to bid on the group of chained and veiled women in front of the Houses of Parliament, Leicester Square and Downing Street.
"This is what Shariah means," the speaker for the mock ISIS group yelled at the crowd using a megaphone. "This happens every day in Iraq and Syria. We are bringing it to you."
Fellow protesters shouted, "ISIS, ISIS, terrorists." The "auctioneers" touted the women as Christian and Muslims from Kobane (Syria), Raqqah (Syria) and Mosul (Iraq). The 14-year-old Yasmin was described to bidders as "pure" and "a virgin."
One protest organizers, who would not give his name, wanted to provoke an "aggravated reaction" to draw attention to the "crimes ISIS are committing in Iraq and Syria," he told Newsweek.
The protests received a few complaints, but no arrests were made. Each auction "sold" off its women for several hundred dollars and then dispersed, according to Newsweek.
"The unfortunate truth is ISIS are already implementing their terror among us," the organizer said. "We were trying to wake up the British public to the danger ISIS pose on humanity."
