WASHINGTON, October 28 (RIA Novosti) – Members of the Kurdish Diaspora began a weeklong hunger strike near the White House on Monday in a bid to draw attention to the kidnapping of hundreds of Kurdish women by Islamic State (IS), one of the group's organizers, Chato Fatah, told RIA Novosti.
"The main idea of the hunger strike is to bring back the girls that were kidnapped by IS. We think it's important to have a rescue mission, and having boots on the ground," Fatah said.
He stressed that it remains imperative to get all the world's attention focused on the plight of the Yezidis and Kurds, and to confront IS genocidal campaign.
"They slaughtered the men, raped and abducted thousands of women. If that is not genocide, I don't know what is," Fatah said.
As part of the hunger strike, the procession will include a mock IS slave market, which will exhibit the humanitarian disaster faced by thousands of Yezidi and Christian women and girls who are being held by the militant group in Iraq and Syria. This kind of torture involves being held in makeshift facilities where they have been coerced into sexual slavery or forced marriage. All women have been subjected to forced religious conversion, according to Kurdish human rights activists.
"They are a global threat. We — the Kurds- are the ones sacrificing and fighting against them right now. If we don't stop them, and if the Western world does not stop them, I'm sure we'll see IS all throughout the Western world," Fatah said.
After fighting the Syrian government since 2012, by June 2014, IS extended their attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on particular territories. Two months later, the group killed hundreds of Kurds who had been living mainly in Iraq and Turkey, as well as in Iran, Syria and the South Caucasus. According to media reports, IS militants buried some of their victims alive, including women and children. In August nearly 300 women were kidnapped and enslaved.
