The leader of a Chinese Christian charity who has been providing support for internally displaced people within Iraq for the last five years, has started building a safe-house for ten abuse victims, it was reported in December.
After learning about the safe-houses in Pakistan built by the British Pakistani Christian Association, the Chinese Christians sought advice for the growing number of women under their care who had escaped the clutches of the rapists they had been sold to.
Many of the Iraqi women are ostracised by their community due to the stigma attached to them and few have any possibility of a future marriage. Moreover, many of the women find that employers do not want to hire them due to ingrained cultural bias against Yazidis and Christians.
Harrowing stories of women being bought back by their families at the price prescribed in a list produced by so-called IS, illustrated the demeaning perception IS extremists have for women in their captivity.
Sleeping pills
Heroic stories of extreme bravery, such as that of one young woman of 17 who was sold into sexual slavery with her aunt and debauched by the same man and his friends, remind us of God’s providence. The two women planned to escape together and, by complaining about nightmares, they secured sleeping pills from their captors. However, they did not actually take these, but saved them and later ground them into a powder. One night they slipped some of this powder into tea they had brewed for their rapists and when the men fell asleep they were able to escape. The two women walked hundreds of kilometres over the next few days and eventually found safety in Erbil. It was quite a feat that they were not recaptured and that they survived the arid desert heat without any resources, not even a compass.
The need for biblically-based trauma counselling, provision of vocational and academic learning and ongoing support through mentors was shared. BPCA uses a model that does not cling to cultural concepts of the need for a mother figure, but helps girls develop into strong independent women, needing no dependency except on God.
This is not to say that ongoing support is unavailable, but mentors ensure that participants at the safe-houses focus on God and the power he provides.
