Dec. 29, 2015 10:05am Tré Goins-Phillips

The Islamic State has allegedly issued a “fatwa” explaining how and when members can rape their female sex slaves, which is described as “one of the inevitable consequences of jihad.”

The documents were originally revealed by Reuters after U.S. special forces discovered the fatwa among a trove of documents in a Syrian raid earlier this year.

The fatwa is one of the Islamic State’s many self-proclaimed rulings on how to enforce Islamic law. Others pertain to how to treat “infidels” and how to address revenue from stolen oil and antiquities.

The fatwa on female slaves was sparked by questions regarding unspecified “violations” by Islamic State members owning sex slaves. The fatwa contains 15 explicit rulings, prohibiting forced abortions and blocking “owners” from having sex with the female slave if she is menstruating or pregnant. Several of the rulings pertain to “sharing” of a slave’s child and rape within families.

“If the owner of a female captive, who has a daughter suitable for intercourse, has sexual relations with the latter, he is not permitted to have intercourse with her mother and she is permanently off limits to him,” one ruling reads, according to the Independent.

The ruling goes on to say that if the “owner” has intercourse with the mother, he is “not permitted” to engage with the daughter because she is “off limits to him.” Additionally, “owners” cannot rape two sisters at the same time, nor can slaves be passed between father and son.

Anal sex is strictly forbidden, the fatwa says, and, should the slave become pregnant by the “owner,” she must be kept by him but freed upon his death. However, fighters are not permitted to sell slaves to anyone they believe will mistreat them.

“The owner of a female captive should show compassion towards her, be kind to her, not humiliate her and not assign her work she is unable to perform,” the document reads.

Islamic State militants have attempted to justify their enslavement and rape of women since the group kidnapped thousands of young Yazidi females in Iraq last year. Under the Islamic State’s guidelines, these captured women were dealt with by the organization’s department of “war spoils.”

Some escapees told the Human Rights Watch that young women and girls were separated from their families and moved in an “organised and methodical fashion to various places in Iraq and Syria” to be sold or given to Islamic State radicals, who repeatedly rape and abuse them, according to the Independent.

The raid that revealed the explicit fatwa was obtained in May of this year when Abu Sayyaf, who claimed to be one of the Islamic State’s top financial officers, was killed.

(H/T: The Independent)

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