Iraq Sentences Former Daesh Leader's Wife to Death
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Al-Karkh Criminal Court in Iraq has sentenced the wife of former Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to death for her involvement with the extremist group and the detention of Yazidi women.
She was found guilty of working with the extremist organization and detaining Yazidi women in her home.
In a statement, the council's media center clarified that "the terrorist detained some Yazidi women in her house, and ISIS gangs subsequently kidnapped them in Sinjar district, west of Nineveh governorate," Shafaq reported.
The sentence was issued under Article 4/1 in conjunction with Article 2/1 and 2/3 of the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005, and Article 7/1 of the Yazidi Survivors Law No. 8 of 2021.
While ISIS fighters and their violent ideology dominated the headlines, the lives of ISIS leaders' wives raised intriguing questions.
Al-Baghdadi's first wife, Asmaa Mohammed, told Al Arabiya in a previous interview that he and other leaders of the group were "obsessed" with women.
Asmaa, who married al-Baghdadi in 1999, said that he owned over 10 Yazidi women as "slaves," adding that al-Baghdadi had also, at one point, married a 13-year-old girl.
Some reports suggest these women, like Saja al-Dulaimi, one of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's wives who was allegedly an Iraqi doctor, may have been unwilling participants, forced into marriage after the Yazidi genocide in 2014.
In addition, evidence suggests some wives played a role in online propaganda, particularly targeting other women.
Wives could have used their connections to manipulate or exploit feelings of isolation in women they knew, persuading them to join the group.
Furthermore, within ISIS territory, some wives may have participated in enforcing the group's rigid gender roles.
Acting as a sort of "religious police" enforcing dress codes and behavior for other women, they indirectly promoted ISIS ideology.
