Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

Let us remember the innocent children of Shihgal

[Anthea]

FIRST PRIORITY FREE YEZIDI WOMEN

Instead the world plays power games in Syria when the solution is simple:

The UN should take responsibility for sealing the Syrian/Turkish borders

Any involvement by Turkey inside Syria and they should immediately have their NATO membership revoked

Also any hopes of closer ties with the EU removed in perpetuity

Isolate the Islamic State loving savages from the rest of humanity (free the Kurds first then build a wall round the Turkish rats)

Any manufacturing company of arms that's arms are being used by jihadist groups anywhere anywhere in the world - should have it's factories closed down - this threat will make most of them take greater care as to whom they sell their arms to

Arms dealers who supply armament to any jihadist groups should be charged with war crimes or murder

All murdering jihadists should have their penises cut off by one of the many groups of Kurdish female fighters and fed to pigs - this way they will know they will never enter the gates of their jihadist heaven

Very few jihadists will want to remain fighting if they fear a lose of virgins - when the Koran mentions virgins it does not mention age or sex - it could be 72 little old men

I do not care if they are alive of dead when their penises are cut off - after what they have done to the innocent Yazidis

Alive is better THEN they will suffer much more - they buried many Yazidis ALIVE

[Anthea]

New Ghobadi film on children of Shengal and Kobanê

Ghobadi’s new film ‘Life on the Border,’ depicting the stories of 8 children from Kobanê and Shengal who escaped ISIS brutality and ended up in refugee camps, was shown in Berlinale. Produced by Bahman Ghobadi, ‘Life on the Border’ was shown in Berlin Film Festival and highlights the tragedy of Kurdish children. The film was shot by children, and focuses on the lives of children who escaped ISIS attacks in Rojava, Syria and South Kurdistan.

The effects of the massacre ISIS carried out in Shengal, the land of Êzîdî Kurds, in 2014 are felt even today. Thousands of Êzîdî women are still captives of ISIS gangs, and tens of thousands of Kurdish Êzîdîs life in refugee camps across Northern, Western and Southern Kurdistan.

The world has witnessed the biggest tragedy of our times two years ago in Shengal, but the voice of Êzîdîs were not heard. Bahman Ghobadi carried the voice of children from Shengal and Kobanê to the cinema screen.

SHOT IN REFUGEE CAMPS

The film depicting the stories of 8 children is half fiction and half documentary. Children named Hazem Khodeideh, Basmeh Soleiman, Sami Hossein, Ronahi Ezaddin, Diar Omar, Delovan Kekha, Mahmod Ahmad and Zohour Saeid, who escaped from ISIS brutality in Kobanê and Shengal, document their stories. The film was shot in Kobanê and refugee camps in South and North Kurdistan and was produced by Ghobadi and directed by Shaho Nemat.

CHILDREN SHOOT THEIR OWN FILM

Traces of movies such as ‘Turtles Can Fly,’ ‘A Time For Drunken Horses’ and ‘Songs From My Mother’s Country’ can be seen in Ghobadi’s new film.

The film carries the voice of Êzîdî children and overwhelms the audience! Ghobadi simultaneously draws attention to the massacres and criticizes the world’s silence on this issue.

The film creates an emotional environment around Kurdish children, but does not seem to be very successful in terms of cinematography. The film is not as impressive as other Ghobadi movies such as ‘Turtles Can Fly’ and ‘A Time For Drunken Horses.’ The half fictive and half documentary qualities of the film create a disruption, and the amateur actors’ performances are questionable. However, the film succeeds in giving the message it has, and the performance of Zohour Saeid at the end is particularly impressive…

‘THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF SAD STORIES’

Shaho Nemat answered the questions of the audience at the screening in Berlin, and said that they shot the film in 4-5 camps throughout 8 months. Nemat said that they worked 8 hours a day and worked together with 30 children in order to teach them different aspects of filmmaking, particularly screenwriting and recording. Nemat said that there were thousands of children with painful stories in the camps, and the film crew’s aim was to allow children to tell their own stories.

CHILDREN’S LETTER TO MERKEL

Hazem Khodeideh, Basmeh Soleiman, Sami Hossein, Ronahi Ezaddin, Diar Omar, Delovan Kekha, Mahmod Ahmad and Zohour Saeid could not go to Berlin due to passport and visa problems, and the letter they wrote to German Chancellor Angela Merkel was read out to the audience by Shaho Nemat.

[Anthea]

More than 1,000 Yazidi Women Receiving Treatment in Germany

More than 1,000 Yezidi women who had been taken as sex slaves by the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremists have been transferred to Baden-Württemberg State in Germany to receive medical treatment, according to German media.

Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, the German doctor who has treated the Yezidi women, said that some of the girls who were sexually abused by IS insurgents are between 7 and 8 of age.

The German authorities in Baden-Württemberg State allocated $104 million for the project of treating the sexually abused Yezidi women.

The IS militants attacked the Yezidi-majority city of Sinjar on August 3, 2014, killing and displacing thousands of the residents of the city, and took thousands of women as sex slaves and sold them in a slave market.

http://en.abna24.com/service/europe/arc ... story.html

[Anthea]

ARA News

Kurdish forces free 31 Yezidi abductees after storming ISIS detention center on Syria-Iraq border

Kurdish forces of the Peshmerga, in cooperation with the Shingal Protection Units (YBS), broke into a detention center for the Islamic State (ISIS) on the Syrian-Iraqi border on Friday, and were able to free 31 Yezidi civilians who had been abducted by ISIS militants over a year ago, official sources reported.

“A special unit from the Peshmerga and the YBS stormed a detention center for ISIS near the al-Hawl town on the Syrian-Iraqi border on Friday and freed 31 Yezidi abductees,” said Ahmed Shingali, official spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Shingal (Sinjar).

“The joint operation was conducted after receiving information confirming that ISIS holds a number of Yezidi civilians in the targeted location,” Shingali said.

The Kurdish forces broke into the detention center after clashes with ISIS militants.

“Four ISIS members were killed in the clashes, before the remaining militants evacuated the area,” Peshmerga spokesman Jabbar Derwalli told ARA News, adding that two Peshmerga fighters and a YBS member were injured in the operation.

“The freed abductees included 22 women and nine children,” the source said. “This successful operation has raised the morale of our forces in their struggle against ISIS.”

In August 2014, ISIS extremists had taken control of Shingal, causing a mass displacement of nearly 400,000 Yezidi civilians towards Duhok and Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Tens of thousands of Yezidis remained trapped in Mount Sinjar, suffering mass killings, kidnappings and rape at the hands of ISIS extremists. Also, more than 3000 Yezidi women have been taken by the radical group as sex slaves.

After more than a year of ISIS occupation, the Yezidi region of Shingal was liberated in November at the hands of the Peshmerga, supported by the U.S.-led coalition’s air cover.

After ISIS departure, the Kurdish forces have discovered several mass graves in Shingal. Most of the victims were women and children from the Yezidi minority. Specialized teams, that have been inspecting traces of the people disappeared during the group’s rule over the Yezidi-populated region, have so far discovered five mass graves belonging to Yezidi civilians, according to human rights activists and Peshmerga officials who spoke to ARA News.

http://aranews.net/2016/03/kurdish-forc ... tees-isis/

[Anthea]

The grandmothers whose lives have been destroyed by the slaughter of her sons and the capture of her daughters and grandchildren

The mothers who cry daily for the deaths of their sons and capture and sexual torture of their daughters

The girls who have had sisters taken as sex slaves by the Islamic State

These are the Yezidi women

Remember them

Weep for them

HELP THEM

[Anthea]

The Guardian

Germany opens its doors to Yazidi women and children enslaved by Isis

Secret shelters in Baden-Württemberg support some of the 2,500 deeply traumatised women and children who have escaped Isis in northern Iraq

From the outside, the shelter looks like a disused old people’s home. Inside, it is more like a busy playgroup. Children with new backpacks queue in pairs against a wall covered in their artwork, waiting to be taken to swimming lessons; football and skipping competitions take place in the corridors while groups of women, babies on their laps, sit huddled together on their phones.

The shelter, in a sleepy village hundreds of miles outside Stuttgart, is one of several dozen that has opened across the German region of Baden-Württemberg since spring last year as part of a special-quota project designed to support some of the estimated 2,500 women and children who have escaped after being held hostage by Islamic State.

Security at the shelter is tight. The only clue as to who is inside comes when a teenage boy shouts instructions in Kurdish to a child attempting to ride a bike in the empty car park.

“These women and children have been enslaved by Isis, who believe they are their owners. They are victims and witnesses to war crimes, so we protect them by running our mission in a secret, secure way,” says Dr Michael Blume, the head of the programme.

The first women and children began arriving in Baden-Württemberg last March. As well as being one of Germany’s wealthiest regions, it is also home to a large number of the 50,000 Kurdish Yazidis, a persecuted minority group from northern Iraq. Last year, the federal parliament issued 1,100 resident visas on humanitarian grounds, and set up an office with a budget of €95m (£74m) to allocate places to women and children kidnapped by Isis.

In a number of murderous dawn attacks that began on 3 August 2014, Isis militants laid siege to the areas around the ancient city of Sinjar, displacing roughly 300,000 people and committing what the UN described as possible genocide against Iraq’s indigenous Yazidi population. Activists say more than 6,000 women and children were kidnapped by militants, many experiencing horrific abuse.

Kidnapped from Sinjar along with her two-year-old child while her husband was working in Duhok, Noor Murad, 25, was held hostage by Isis for 10 months. She was freed after months of negotiations and arrived in Germany in November.

“It has been overwhelming for me to come here. I have five brothers still missing so I am thinking about them,” she says through a Kurdish translator and German social worker.

While in Germany, Murad will receive intensive physical and emotional support. She was initially assessed by Dr Jan Kizilhan, the programme’s chief psychologist in Iraq. Having interviewed more than 1,200 former captives, his challenge, he says, was to create a trauma counselling programme that could be applied in multiple locations, in another language, for a “devastated group who have endured multiple genocides”.

Blume explains that the culture of psychotherapy is alien to most of the women and girls. “There is not such a focus on the self,” he says, “so we begin slowly, making the women feel safe and secure.”

An intensive orientation starts immediately after they arrive on a specially chartered plane from Irbil. There are free German lessons for all and strict school attendance is expected for those under 18. Many of the children were forced to attend indoctrination and light weapons training while captive, and few schools are operational in the internally displaced people’s camps where the hostages lived after escaping. Social workers are firm about allowing the women space from their childcare duties as part of their therapy.

The women are given a small stipend depending on their age and number of dependents, and they manage their own budgets “exceptionally well”, according to the head social worker at the shelter. The women shop for food, go out together to explore, and begin to navigate the daily demands of German life.

“Going from every day being locked up all the time – I just wanted to die when I was in the hands of Daesh [Isis],” Murad tells me. “Now I am comfortable and I enjoy my freedom. I can’t compare Germany to Iraq. It is very peaceful and quiet and very green. But how can I enjoy being here when I am without my family?”

Those with specific medical emergencies (complicated gynaecological issues or life-limiting disabilities, or those who had self-immolated) were prioritised for the scheme. All were assessed on the extent to which they were traumatised by their time as hostages, whether they could benefit from treatment in Germany, and whether they could adapt to life there.

“The future for the younger women will be better than the older ones, as they will be able to integrate easily and enjoy more freedom than would have been possible in Iraq,” says Kizilhan.

The timescale for psychological treatment is dependent on the individual. Several women have children still in captivity and are attempting to negotiate their urgent release, which clearly takes most of their energy.

The women arrive in Germany severely traumatised from their experience. Most have severe post-traumatic stress disorder, Kizilhan explains. But generally their physical health has been maintained by the basic services at the camps.

Salma, 17, from Sinjar, travelled to Germany with her 15-year-old sister and aunt from Zakho camp six months ago. She is enjoying the freedom of Stuttgart, but with guilt and sadness, and has been attending counselling since she arrived.

“I felt I was nothing when I came here, but I have been treated very well,” she says. If she stays in the programme her family, who urged her to go, can apply to join her in two years. “I had to have a lot of medical treatment and I have had counselling and social support. I have everything that I need.”

Salma’s family remain in Zahko camp, one of many under-resourced settlements around Duhok, but she is determined to bring them to Germany, as she says she never wants to return to Iraq, or “any Muslim country” again.

“I feel like I am stronger now – and the psychologist said I don’t have to have medicine any more. When I was in Iraq, I thought my life was over. I had no hope, even when I was free. It was still the end of my life. Now, I have a new life. I go to school. I learn German and I will study in the future.”

This article was amended on 2 March 2016 to clarify that there are 50,000 Kurdish Yazidis in Germany, not just in Baden-Württemberg.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... are_btn_tw

[Anthea]

BAS News

Dozens of Yazidi Captives Go Missing in North-East Syria

Its unknown whether IS transferred them or YPG has taken them captive, Yazidi activists say

The Directorate of Yezidi Abductees Affairs in Dohuk province of Kurdistan Region is concerned with the unknown destiny of tens of Yezidi women and children held hostage by the Islamic State (IS) militants in Shaddadi city in Syria.

Hussein Kuru, director of the Office of Abductee Affairs in the northern Iraqi city of Duhok, which works to locate captive Yazidis and free them, told BasNews that they were in contact with the Yezidi captives and obtained accurate intelligence that the captives were in Shaddadi city two days before the liberation of the city by People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD).

We have lost contact with the captives since YPG took control of Shaddadi, therefore, we do not have a clue whether IS has killed or transferred them to another location or YPG has detained them in an unknown place, Kuru explained.

“Since YPG has previously conducted such acts when we rescued some women and children in Syria, we suspect the party of being responsible for captivating the Yazidi women and children,” he continued.

Lazima Shangali, the Yezidi women rights activist, noted that "We have heard that many Yezidi women and children have been held by IS militants in Shaddadi city near Sinjar two days before the city was recaptured by the YPG fighters”.

Suzan Safar, Head of the Dak Organisation for Yezidi Women's Development, called upon YPG and the International Community to spare no efforts in finding the Yezidi captives in Shaddadi who have been abducted in Sinjar by IS militants in August 2014.

http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/new ... tan/263179

[Anthea]

BAS News

US Congress Recognises IS Atrocities Against Yazidis and Christians as “Genocide”

It has called for setting up a Syrian war crimes tribunal

American lawmakers have voted to label the Islamic State (IS) group's atrocities in Syria and Iraq as "genocide," and called for setting up a Syrian war crimes tribunal under United Nations' authority, according to DailyMail website.

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution to pressure President Barack Obama's administration to call the attacks against Christians, Yazidis and other minorities "war crimes and genocide”; but the State Department has so far refused to make that decision.

The American lawmakers have recently voted to label IS atrocities in Syria and Iraq as "genocide," and called for setting up Syrian war crimes tribunal under United Nations authority, and the representatives in the US Congress voted 392 to 3 for a resolution impelling the White House to urge the UN Security Council to establish a Syrian war crimes tribunal to call upon the actions by the Syria's government and others "gross violations of the international law amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity" according to the Daily Mail report.

Congress has set a March 17 deadline for the State Department to formally decide whether to issue a comprehensive genocide designation, and the State Department spokesman John Kirby said that the Secretary of State John Kerry would reach a determination soon.

http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/news/world/264591

[Anthea]

Rudaw

Yezidi girl who escaped ISIS: the world failed to act

BERLIN, Germany - A Kurdish Yezidi survivor who escaped captivity under the Islamic State (ISIS) slammed the international community for “its failure” to respond to the atrocities committed by the militants, aimed at annihilating the Yezidi community in Iraq.

Nadiya Murad, 23, who escaped from ISIS in November 2014 after three months in captivity and who delivered an emotional speech at the United Nations about what had happened to others like her in ISIS hands, accused the international community -- including Kurdish and Iraqi institutions -- of failure to protect them. More than 5,000 Yezidi women and girls reportedly remain in ISIS captivity.

“I told them what I knew and expected them to act, to solve the problem, to stop ISIS and free the women and children from their captivity. Crying or telling me that I was a hero does not solve these people’s misery,” Murad said in an interview with Rudaw in Germany.

“All of them said good things and were against ISIS but they have not done anything yet, said Murad, who is from the Yezidi rural area of Kojo. “They haven’t done anything that I asked them to do. But I will not give up and will continue my fight,” she said.

The following is a translated version of the interview:

Rudaw: How did you feel when you spoke at the Security Council, where you took the cry of the Yezidis to the United Nations?

Nadiya Murad: I conveyed what ISIS had done against Kurdish Yezidi girls and women, to which I had been witness. My call and cry was not only for my fellow Yezidis, but also for all other victims of ISIS to whom the world should open its eyes and help. I feel that I have not yet completed my work. I haven’t done anything for all those young and old who are still in ISIS captivity.

What I wanted to convey was that ISIS is against humanity, it’s against women and children and it is against all religions. What I said there was that ISIS was a threat against all humanity. There was a line of other victims before us at the hands of these militants. They killed innocent people in Syria and in France. I want to call on the world to come to our rescue. What we experienced is beyond imagination.

When they attacked us, they killed our men and then they abducted our women and children. They did all that and said they were perpetrating these crimes in the name of Islam. They forced us to convert to Islam. I have said this before in other Arab countries and I also say this to the young people who sympathize with ISIS here (in Germany). I want to tell them that what ISIS does has no reference in any religion. We were subjected to great cruelty, but no one came to our rescue. ISIS raped thousands of our Yezidi women. They sold us into slavery. Our children have been in their captivity for the past one and a half years. It’s everybody’s duty to do something for the victims and survivors. Sadly, no one has done anything so far.

When you escaped ISIS in Mosul you sought refuge with an Arab family. Did that change how you feel in any way?

Nadiya Murad: It is true that an Arab family helped me, but when ISIS attacked us many of the Arab families around our home and even the Muslim Kurds in Shingal joined ISIS. Some of our Muslim neighbors were recruited by ISIS. I’m not saying that every Muslim is ISIS. Most of those we saw were ISIS from Mosul. Those who were in the bus (with us) between Mosul and Solaq were from Talafar and spoke the Turkmani language. We lost trust in them and many others whom we thought would help us a lot.

I was asleep when my mother woke me up early in the morning of August 3. She said ISIS was now in Shingal. Men from the village went to the Peshmerga. They said it was nothing to worry about. But the people in charge of the area left in the night. We lost trust in them too. When ISIS entered our village no one came to our rescue. We were surrounded in our village until August 15. Our men called the Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government for help… we were continually calling the Peshmerga to come and rescue us. But we were left alone and never thought that we would be so lonely. But one and half years have passed and we, the victims, still wait for the KRG to punish those who abandoned Shingal and left us at the mercy of ISIS. After I fled ISIS, I was in touch with many Kurdish families who have opened their heart and homes to us, Kurds from all Kurdish areas.

Six of your brothers were killed that day when you were forcefully gathered in the school. Can you describe the atmosphere of that day?

Nadiya Murad: It was a difficult day. They were moving us all around. It was a very hot day. We had been under siege for days. We were all thirsty and hungry. Around noon they came and took the men. When they gathered us in the school I was walking beside my brother. Before getting to the school building I saw earth digging vehicles along the way. I was scared and asked my brother what these vehicles were doing there. He said perhaps they needed them to open the roads. Little did we know that the machines were there to dig mass graves.

I never saw my brothers after that day when they separated us in the school. There were many people who were separated from their children. They killed all of my six brothers but I know families who lost nine members. The most difficult thing was that I was the youngest child in our home. We are in agony because of my brothers. What is even more painful is that our village is still in ISIS control. We don’t even know where the remains of our brothers could be… There are thousands of children who still wait to be united with their mothers. Thousands of mothers still wait to see their children. Unfortunately those we trusted didn’t do much for us. One and half years have passed but not one child has been rescued in a military operation.

You say that what you expected has not been done to help you and your fellow Yezidis. People who were listening to you at the Security Council were very moved and some of them began to cry when you told the horrifying stories. What do you think of the world commitment to the Yezidis case and other victims of the ISIS?

Nadiya Murad: I told them what I knew and expected them to act, to solve the problem, to stop ISIS and free the women and children in their captivity. Crying or telling me that I was a hero does not solve these people’s misery.

What did you ask the world leaders to do when you met them?

Nadiya Murad: I asked them to destroy ISIS. It’s a threat against all humanity. And to rescue the women that are in ISIS captivity. To prevent young people to join ISIS and recognize the mass murder as genocide.

What do you expect Yezidis to do now?

Nadiya Murad: The Yezidi people are being gradually annihilated. There are many mass graves. Some have left for Europe in despair. Some have remained in the camps without any services available to them. What we want is help, that our case is recognized as genocide, that our areas are protected by our own Yezidi people and the administration in Shingal is managed by the Yezidis themselves.

I want to say that even the areas that were liberated from ISIS were recaptured, not for restoration of Yezidi honor but for political reasons. Every political party has its own flags. The war I see is not for us but for the flags and that has added to our agony and deepened our wounds.

You live in Germany now, as do many other Yezidis who have taken refuge here in Europe and many more who want to do the same. Do you want Yezidis to stay in their homeland or leave for Europe?

Nadiya Murad: I don’t tell my people to leave their homeland. But I don’t want my people to be captured again. I have lost trust in those who protected us. Whenever they held accountable those who left us in the hands of ISIS, then I will return.

How did you feel when the Peshmerga freed Shingal?

Nadiya Murad: Shingal has not been fully freed. We want all our regions to be freed. I support all those who try to stop ISIS, whether militarily or by other means. It is the duty of the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces to recapture all areas from ISIS. But I would be glad to see the commanders who abandoned Shingal held accountable.

How do you regard the efforts of the Kurdish government for international recognition of the mass murder of Yezidis as genocide? Should they do more?

Nadiya Murad: Wherever I have been I have called for recognition of the Yezidi case as genocide. So far no one has told me that other people have pushed for the same recognition. This case has not been moved forward at all. This is why I call on both the Kurdish and Iraqi governments to speed up their efforts.

You are in the list of candidates to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Is it important for you to receive it?

Nadiya Murad: The Nobel Prize is a very great prize. But I see the rescue of Yezidi women and girls as much bigger than the Nobel Prize. It is true that the Nobel is a world prize, but our case is bigger than that prize.

http://rudaw.net/english/interview/18032016

[Anthea]

Mail Online

EXCLUSIVE: Yazidi sex slave reveals how she was kidnapped and sold EIGHT times to ISIS jihadis who pick out girls like they are on parade in a 'car show room'

Khalida was put on display in Raqqa with 800 women like a 'car show room'
Women were sold for as little as $20 or exchanged for mobile phones
The 20-year-old Yazidi was bought and sold eight times over 16 months
Khalida tattooed her dad's name on her arm so her body could be identified
She was set free after her final captor sold her to her family for £20,000

A Yazidi woman sold as a sex-slave eight times by an ISIS jihadi says she was put on parade like she was being picked out in a 'car showroom'.

Khalida, 20, was kidnapped and taken to Raqqa where she was put on display in a 'meat market' where women are purchased for as little as a mobile phone, or simply given away as 'gifts'.

The most beautiful women are put into a separate 'VIP' room where leaders can take their time choosing their favourite three or four girls each.

Khalida was bought by an old man with a white beard and kept in a small room where he raped her - and then beaten by his wife for 'tempting' her husband.

But it was only the beginning of the horror: she went on to endure months of daily abuse, torture and brutality at the hands as she was bought and sold by eight men.

The quiet, slight-framed, woman tried to kill herself many times to end her terrible ordeal and even tattooed her father’s name onto her arm so her body could be identified after her death.

Now she bravely breaks her silence to tell the world of

Khalida told MailOnline: They did everything to me. But I want people to know what happened to me so that the world understands how the Yazidi people have suffered.’

Her ordeal began in August 2014 when her family were denounced as ‘unbelievers’ by former neighbours as they tried to flee their hometown of Sinjar after it had been overrun by ISIS fighters.

Khalida told MailOnline: ‘Our neighbours, who are Muslims, said they would protect us, but when we were stopped at a checkpoint one of them pointed us out to the foreign [ISIS] fighters and said we were Yazidi. And we were all taken. There were 36 of us.’

The family were separated by sex. To this day Khalida does not know what happened to the men – her father, her uncles, some of her brothers.

The women were separated again – married and unmarried. Put with the single women Khalida and her cousins were taken to a big hall. An ISIS fighter took their photographs.

Among 800 other young Yazidi women terrified Khalida was taken by bus to the ISIS capital Raqqa, passing through her destroyed town on the way.

She said: ‘I saw dead bodies – children, women and men – along the roadside. My eyes were scarred by what I saw and I had to hold my nose against the stench.’

In Raqqa the women were put on parade in a big room, which Khalida describes like a ‘car show room of girls’.

She told MailOnline: ‘We were put on display. Men came in and looked at us like objects. It was like a car showroom. Women were bought for cash – as little as $20, or exchanged for things like mobile phones, or given away as gifts.

‘The most beautiful women were put into a special room. Then five top ISIS leaders – emirs – came to choose girls. They took away three or four girls each.

‘I was very afraid. I didn’t know what would happen to me – raped, murdered?’

Khalida and her cousin were bought by an old man with a long white beard, a Syrian known as Abu Qalla, who took them to the home he shared with his wife and children.

Locked into a room for two weeks the terrified young women could hear the family through the wall but knew nothing about the horrendous abuse they were to suffer.

Then one day the Abu Qalla raped Khalida’s cousin in front of her. His wife later beat the girls, accusing them of ‘tempting her husband’ and branding the pair as ‘infidels’.

The wife said: ‘You are Yazidi. You deserve what you get.’

Over the following year and four months Khalida, who stands just 4ft 11in tall, has a small button nose, rosy cheeks, downy skin, and an engaging lisp, endured the most degrading sexual and physical abuse.


EXCLUSIVE: Yazidi sex slave reveals how she was kidnapped and sold EIGHT times to ISIS jihadis who pick out girls like they are on parade in a 'car show room'

Khalida was put on display in Raqqa with 800 women like a 'car show room'
Women were sold for as little as $20 or exchanged for mobile phones
The 20-year-old Yazidi was bought and sold eight times over 16 months
Khalida tattooed her dad's name on her arm so her body could be identified
She was set free after her final captor sold her to her family for £20,000

By Nick Fagge In Duhok, Northern Iraq With Pictures By Daniel Leal-olivas, For Mailonline

Published: 14:45, 18 March 2016 | Updated: 17:33, 18 March 2016

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A Yazidi woman sold as a sex-slave eight times by an ISIS jihadi says she was put on parade like she was being picked out in a 'car showroom'.

Khalida, 20, was kidnapped and taken to Raqqa where she was put on display in a 'meat market' where women are purchased for as little as a mobile phone, or simply given away as 'gifts'.

The most beautiful women are put into a separate 'VIP' room where leaders can take their time choosing their favourite three or four girls each.

Khalida was bought by an old man with a white beard and kept in a small room where he raped her - and then beaten by his wife for 'tempting' her husband.

But it was only the beginning of the horror: she went on to endure months of daily abuse, torture and brutality at the hands as she was bought and sold by eight men.

The quiet, slight-framed, woman tried to kill herself many times to end her terrible ordeal and even tattooed her father’s name onto her arm so her body could be identified after her death.

Scroll down for video
Unconcious: Khalida was raped up to three times a day and was left unconscious after she was gang raped
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Unconcious: Khalida was raped up to three times a day and was left unconscious after she was gang raped
Torture: The 20-year-old was abused and tortured for the 16 months she was held as an ISIS slave in Raqqa

Torture: The 20-year-old was abused and tortured for the 16 months she was held as an ISIS slave in Raqqa
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The courageous young woman - who was held for 16 months, finally won her freedom after she convinced her ‘slave master’ to sell her back to her family for $24,000.

Now she bravely breaks her silence to tell the world of

Khalida told MailOnline: They did everything to me. But I want people to know what happened to me so that the world understands how the Yazidi people have suffered.’

Her ordeal began in August 2014 when her family were denounced as ‘unbelievers’ by former neighbours as they tried to flee their hometown of Sinjar after it had been overrun by ISIS fighters.

Khalida told MailOnline: ‘Our neighbours, who are Muslims, said they would protect us, but when we were stopped at a checkpoint one of them pointed us out to the foreign [ISIS] fighters and said we were Yazidi. And we were all taken. There were 36 of us.’

The family were separated by sex. To this day Khalida does not know what happened to the men – her father, her uncles, some of her brothers.
Desperate: Khalida and her cousin were raped by the Syrian man who 'bought' them - he was known as Abu Qalla. His wife beat them and they were forced to take contraception

Desperate: Khalida and her cousin were raped by the Syrian man who 'bought' them - he was known as Abu Qalla. His wife beat them and they were forced to take contraception
Suicide: Khalida tried to commit suicide on multiple occasions, and tattooed her father's name on her arm to ensure her body could be identified if she succeeded, but she survived each attempt

Suicide: Khalida tried to commit suicide on multiple occasions, and tattooed her father's name on her arm to ensure her body could be identified if she succeeded, but she survived each attempt

The women were separated again – married and unmarried. Put with the single women Khalida and her cousins were taken to a big hall. An ISIS fighter took their photographs.

Among 800 other young Yazidi women terrified Khalida was taken by bus to the ISIS capital Raqqa, passing through her destroyed town on the way.

She said: ‘I saw dead bodies – children, women and men – along the roadside. My eyes were scarred by what I saw and I had to hold my nose against the stench.’

In Raqqa the women were put on parade in a big room, which Khalida describes like a ‘car show room of girls’.

She told MailOnline: ‘We were put on display. Men came in and looked at us like objects. It was like a car showroom. Women were bought for cash – as little as $20, or exchanged for things like mobile phones, or given away as gifts.

‘The most beautiful women were put into a special room. Then five top ISIS leaders – emirs – came to choose girls. They took away three or four girls each.

‘I was very afraid. I didn’t know what would happen to me – raped, murdered?’

Khalida and her cousin were bought by an old man with a long white beard, a Syrian known as Abu Qalla, who took them to the home he shared with his wife and children.

Locked into a room for two weeks the terrified young women could hear the family through the wall but knew nothing about the horrendous abuse they were to suffer.

Then one day the Abu Qalla raped Khalida’s cousin in front of her. His wife later beat the girls, accusing them of ‘tempting her husband’ and branding the pair as ‘infidels’.

The wife said: ‘You are Yazidi. You deserve what you get.’

Over the following year and four months Khalida, who stands just 4ft 11in tall, has a small button nose, rosy cheeks, downy skin, and an engaging lisp, endured the most degrading sexual and physical abuse.
Escape: She tried to escape three times but at each attempt the families she asked for help sent her back to ISIS

Escape: She tried to escape three times but at each attempt the families she asked for help sent her back to ISIS
Infidel: She said the families told her she was an infidel, and refused her pleas when she offered them money

Infidel: She said the families told her she was an infidel, and refused her pleas when she offered them money
Kidnapped: She was seized at a checkpoint when her family tried to flee her hometown in August 2014 when ISIS attacked, but said she was revealed as Yazidi by her Muslim neighbours who betrayed them to ISIS

Kidnapped: She was seized at a checkpoint when her family tried to flee her hometown in August 2014 when ISIS attacked, but said she was revealed as Yazidi by her Muslim neighbours who betrayed them to ISIS

Raped up to three times a day her ‘slave master’ or gang-raped by groups of ISIS fighters, this quiet young woman was bought and sold by eight different men – each more brutal, callous and perverted than the last.

She told MailOnline she was force-fed contraceptive pills and once taken to hospital for a contraceptive injection after she was rendered unconscious by one particularly brutal gang rape.

‘They [ISIS] did not want me get pregnant, especially if there was more than one man because they would not know who the father of the baby was,’ she said.

During her 16-month ordeal Khalida escaped three times, seeking sanctuary at the homes of three Arab families and appealing to them to contact her family.

But each time she was denounced to ISIS and returned to her brutal ‘slave master’.

‘I told them, help me, get me out of here and my family will give you anything you want, name your price,’ Khalida said.

‘But they said: “You are Yazidi, an infidel, we refuse to help you.”’

Khalida tried to kill herself many times, in an attempt to free herself from the terrible abuse she was suffering.

She tattooed her father’s name on her arm so her body could identify her body after her death.

She told MailOnline: ‘I tried to kill myself many times. I covered myself in water and put my hand on electric cables but I always survived.

‘I asked God to kill me. I thought it was better to die than to live as a sex slave with what they were doing to me, every day.’

However she survived.

Ultimately Khalida threw herself upon the mercy of her final ‘slave master’, and appealed to him to free her from the misery ISIS had condemned her to.

Her last captor, a Syrian man called Nasser, finally agreed to release her – and forced her to barter for her freedom. He judged her family must pay $30,000 [£20,000] even though they were poor and homeless.

‘I begged him and kissed his feet begging for him to contact my family,’ Khalida told MailOnline.

‘I told him I had been enslaved for over a year and had heard nothing about my family. I begged him every day for two months.

‘Finally he let me call my brother Faisal. Nasser told him he would sell me for $30,000.

‘I told him my family were poor and had nothing, that they had abandoned their home.

‘I had to barter for my life. Finally he agreed to sell me for $24,000. Nasser contacted a man in Iraq. My brother paid a deposit.

‘I was taken to a village near the front line near Mosul. I had to walk for five hours and I called to the Peshmerga fighters.’

Talking by torch-light in a cold, unfinished flat, in Duhok, northern Iraq, this brave young woman has vowed not to let her 16-month ordeal define her life.

She told MailOnline: ‘Before the war I had a happy life. I lived with my family, helping my mother around the house with the cooking and the cleaning.

‘Now my dream is to be able to read and write, because I was not able to go to school when I was young.

‘When I was out there [in captivity] I was blind. When I was being moved around there many signs, road signs, if I had have been able to read them I might have been able to have escaped earlier.’

Traditionally Yazidi women are forbidden to marry – or have sexual relations - outside of their community, or even their caste, and are expelled if they do so.

However the Yazidi spiritual leader, Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail, made a declaration supporting the 800 women abducted and sexually abused by ISIS, to ensure they were allowed back into their tight-knit community.

‘The Baba Sheikh wrote a letter supporting women like Khalida, to make sure they were not expelled or shunned from their community,’ said Dr Saeed Dakhil Saeed, president of the Sinjar Foundation, which supports Yazidi victims of sexual violence and other kidnapped refugees.

Link to Photos:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... slave.html

[Anthea]

BAS News

Yazidi Mass Grave Containing 70 Women Discovered near Mosul

SINJAR — Another mass grave, containing 70 Yazidi victims, has been discovered near Mosul in the north of Iraq, a security source revealed to BasNews.

On Saturday, March 19, residents of Batush sub-district in western Mosul reported a mass grave where allegedly the body of 70 Yazidi women lay.

A source from Nineveh police revealed that the victims had apparently been tortured before being killed with a shot in the head.

After the Islamic State (IS) jihadists overrun the predominantly Yazidi town of Sinjar in August 2014, the militants captured over 5,000 Yazidi women and killed hundreds in the area.

Scores of mass graves have so far been discovered after Kurdish Peshmerga forces pushed the insurgents back from Sinjar and the surrounding areas.

http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/new ... tan/265296

Anthea: There is no end to the horrors and suffering of the Yazidis

[Anthea]

Ezidi woman recounts ordeal of IS captivity

An Ezidi woman has recently given a harrowing account of her experience as a captive of Islamic State (IS) militants describing the treatment of women and girls kept under slavery and subjected to sexual abuse.

The woman, speaking anonymously, said she was held captive by IS militants for a year.

Thousands of Ezidi women and girls are still held captive by the militants who subject them to sexual slavery.

The Ezidi survivor says militants are forcing Ezidis to convert to Islam and are training young Ezidi boys for combat.

“They take girls as young as 14, 12, nine, even eight years old as sex slaves,” she said. “They train boys to use guns, teach them how to pray and read the Quran. Those who don’t learn are beaten. Once they almost beat my son to death with cables.”

The survivor, who told her story in a camp in Duhok in the Kurdistan Region, added that her son and two teenage daughters are still held by IS.

Although she managed to flee, she is deeply traumatized and finds there is little psychological support available for people who have suffered like her.

"I expect I will die, and never see my children. Sometimes when I'm alone, I want to kill myself. I am so upset for my children," she said as she recounted her harrowing story.

A trauma center has been set up to help Ezidi women and girls but a doctor overseeing the psychological treatment of survivors says resources are very limited and there is a desperate need for improved mental health care.

“More than eight hundred women have gone through therapy so far but we have only one psychiatrist and two in training along with 35 psychotherapists,” Dr. Nezar Islet Taib, the head of Duhok’s Ministry of Health Directorate said. “This is not enough to provide good mental services to these women. They were victims of rape; they witnessed the killing of their relatives and the abuse of their children.”

Local officials estimate about 2,400 Ezidi men, women and children have been ransomed, rescued or managed to escape from IS.

Many Ezidi women and girls remain under IS captivity. The government faces an enormous challenge to rescue them and assist the thousands of traumatized survivors living in makeshift camps, Dr. Taib said.

http://www.nrttv.com/EN/Details.aspx?Jimare=5969

[Anthea]

Thousands of Ezidi women and girls are still held captive by the militants who subject them to sexual slavery.

NOBODY RESCUES THEM

A bomb in Istanbul international public outcry

Several bombs in Belgium International public outcry

Many thousands of Yazidis slaughtered - some even buried alive

Many thousands of Yazidi women and children help as sex slaves by Islamic State

NO PUBLIC OUTCRY

Month after month thousands of Yazidi women and children are being repeatedly raped and abused

Many die through the torture of repeated rapes

THE WORLD HAS TURNED IT'S BACK ON THE YAZIDIS

Think on this:

If the world cannot rescue several thousand Yazidis from ISIS

Then they certainly will not be able to protect millions of Europeans from ISIS

[Anthea]

Êzidîs freed from ISIS: We're proud thanks to Kurdish Leader and fighters

51 Êzidî Kurds - 10 women and 41 children- were freed from ISIS captivity and reunited with their relatives in the Êzidî Women’s Assembly in Mount Shengal. ISIS had taken the civilians as hostage during its invasion of Shengal on August 3, 2014.

The Êzidîs taken hostage by ISIS and their relatives who had been apart for two and a half years spoke to ANF about their experiences.

'THEY CAPTURED US IN OUR HOUSES AND TOOK US TO RAQQA'

Gozê Tılızer: "I am from the Verdiye village of Tılezer, ISIS held me hostage for two and a half years. We were at home when they attacked, they took us hostage in our house. They took my husband away from my children and I, I still don’t know where he is. They took us to Syria, and then they brought us here from Raqqa. We were in jail until our fighters saved us, YBŞ forces and the guerrillas saved us."

'THEY MASSACRED MY MOTHER AND FATHER'

Basma Şengal: "They caught us on the first day of the massacre as we were running for the mountain. They massacred my mother and father, and took us to Tel Afer after holding us in Shengal briefly. We stayed in Tel After for 3 months, they separated the men and women here. I don’t know where they took the men and the children, but they took us women to Syria. They kept us in an underground prison. My only wish is that my children and husband escape ISIS. They brought us here from Raqqa, my sisters from the PKK, YBŞ, YJŞ, and HPG saved us. Thank God for them.

Suham Salih Mehmud: "I am from Shengal’s Tıl Benat village, they took us hostage in Shengal. We were a big group, they first held us in Shengal and then took us to Raqqa. I don’t know where my family and husband are, they took them somewhere else. ISIS gangs treated us very badly, they often used violence. The YBŞ and the HPG freed us, I am thankful to them. My wish is that all Êzidîs are saved from ISIS."

Ali Gurnuz: "My cousin and her children are among the rescued civilians, I thank everyone who helped save them. May God protect YBŞ, HPG, YJA STAR and YJŞ."

'WE ARE PROUD THANKS TO LEADER APO AND THE FIGHTERS’

Xwededa Berkaat: "I am from Sinune, one of my relatives was freed and is now with us. I thank YBŞ, YJŞ, HPG, and YJA STAR for freeing them. Everyone who was freed is our brother, sister, and mother. We owe a lot to the fighters that sacrificed their lives for rescuing the civilians, I thank all woman and man fighters. We are proud thanks to Leader Apo and the fighters, we will free all of our people taken hostage."

'WE KEPT OUR PROMISE'

YBŞ fighter Zınar Şengal’s family is also among the civilians freed from ISIS captivity. Şengal said that his wife, children and aunts-in-law were among the freed Êzidîs. Şengal recalled the YBŞ’s promise to fight until all Êzidîs were free, and said that they kept their promise by continuing to free civilians from ISIS. Lastly, Şengal promised the 2 fighters that fell as martyrs during the rescue operation that their deaths would be avenged, and thanked everyone who helped save the Êzidî civilians."