AS IT IS 2015-07-26 UN: Victims of ISIS Abuse Need Support

AS IT IS 2015-07-26 UN: Victims of ISIS Abuse Need Support

A United Nations diplomat¹ is warning girls against joining the self-declared Islamic State militant² group. If the girls become members of the group, she says, it will be the biggest mistake in their lives.

Zainab Hawa Bangura is the UN’s Special Representatives on Sexual Violence in Conflict. She recently told VOA about meeting women and girls who have survived unspeakable abuses by the militants³.

The Islamic State uses social media in its effort at persuading men and women to join the group, also known as ISIS. It urges them to reject their families and join their movement in Syria and Iraq. But many who do join soon discover it is not what they thought it would be.

UN diplomat Zainab Hawa Bangura has met some of those who regretted their decision.

“ISIS is a one-way ticket -- you go there and, you know, you can’t come out again.”

Ms. Bangura says that is especially true for women and girls. She says even those who voluntarily join ISIS are victims and need as much support as those who are kidnapped by the group.

Ms. Bangura recently visited refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. She met women who survived Islamic State kidnappings and sexual violence. 

“When I came back I felt so heartbroken I just wept myself to sleep.”

The Yazidi community has been especially affected⁴. A new U.N. report says the Islamic State group continues to hold as many as 3,500 Yazidis. It says they have faced physical and sexual abuse.

The diplomat says that when the kidnappings began, many of the captured Yazidi women killed themselves.

“I met a woman who actually was captured with 14 girls who actually mixed the poison and gave it to the 14 girls to commit suicide.”

She says others hanged themselves or cut their wrists. Some were sold repeatedly. The price for some women was a box of cigarettes.

Many victims turn to their spiritual beliefs to forget the violence because mental health experts and social services are not widely available.

Ms. Bangura says many of the younger girls just want to go back to school. She told them the best way for them to get back at ISIS would be to succeed in life.

Words in This Story

one-way ticket – n. idiomatic⁵ – permission to travel to a place but not back from the place

heartbroken – adj. filled with great sadness

poison – n. a substance that can cause people or animals to die or to become very sick if it gets into their bodies, especially by being swallowed

1 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

2 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 idiomatic   

adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的

参考例句：

• In our reading we should always be alert for idiomatic expressions.我们在阅读过程中应经常注意惯用法。
• In his lecture,he bore down on the importance of idiomatic usage in a language.他在演讲中着重强调了语言中习惯用法的重要性。