“Why does she smell so bad?” demanded the ISIS fighter of the older of two Yazidi sex slaves he kept in the Syrian city of Shadadi.

The 34-year-old woman responded, “She has an infection inside, you need to take care of her.” The fighter remained indifferent to the suffering of the younger slave; instead he continued his ritual of praying before and after he raped her.

How old was the slave? She was only 12 years old. But the ISIS fighter insisted, “No. She’s not a little girl. She’s a slave. And she knows exactly how to have sex. And having sex with her pleases God.”

This is not isolated; indeed, as the New York Times has reported, the sex slave trade has theological roots in the Quran which permits the enslavement of non-Muslim women. To accommodate this, ISIS has created a bureaucratic system and infrastructure to handle the estimated 3100+ Yazidi sex slaves that are currently being held. An total of 5270 Yazidi women were abducted last year.

Rape and sex slavery are not exclusive to Yazidi women. The family of the late Kayla Mueller, an American hostage held by ISIS until her death was announced in February, have reported that she was taken as a “wife” by ISIS leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi and raped repeatedly.