This is how ISIS arrest, Rape and Sell slave girls
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BAGHDAD - Terrorism has affected a large part of the globe. People have lost their lives, faced displacement and much more.
Today when we think that we have to some extent been successful in countering terrorism, this narrative by two women from Iraq travelling to India, accompanied by a few men will send a chill down your spine.
They primarily came to India to draw attention towards the plight of Yezidis.
These women have accounts of the horrifying incidents of genocide that is going on in spite of the fact that many think that ISIS has been wiped out.
30-year-old Hanifa Abbas Khalaf recounts how she had a beautiful life before the ISIS came in 2014. She was born seven years after her parents got married.
Hanifa, who studied till the 9th grade had to drop out of school because of her mother's poor health and started looking after her younger siblings at a very early age.
Hanifa said that she had a beautiful life before 2014. She had nine sisters and a brother who along with Hanifa lived with their parents in a village named Katania.
It was in August 2014 on an ill-fated day when Hanifa heard the gun shots for the first time and she along with her family tried to run away because they knew that it was the Yezidi villages that were being attacked.
*"I heard the firing and went to wake up my parents and siblings. I made them breakfast . We did not have an option but to walk towards a safer area in order to save our lives. It was one of our neighbours who helped me and took my parents in the car towards the area near the mountains. I left my parents there and came back to get my siblings. They were too young to do anything on their own. It was after we covered a few miles on foot that we stopped near a house to take some rest and drink water. There were other families taking shelter as well. I was about to reach the well when the ISIS arrived. They started firing gun shots, throwing grenades and pushed people inside the house.",* said Hanifa.
Hanifa said that her brother was 12-years-old , who somehow managed to run and reach the mountains. She got injured in the firing and was hiding herself from the ISIS.
The ISIS reportedly took cars from the neighbouring villages and transported about 60 women which included Hanifa's five younger sisters too.The told all the men to convert to Islam and killed the ones who resisted.
According to Hanifa, who witnessed the dreadful day, she said that one of the men resisted converting to Islam and as a consequence was shot several times and then beheaded by the ISIS.
Hanifa narrating the barbaric incident recounts that she saw pools of blood, endless number of corpses surrounding her. There were animals feeding on the dead and the sight in itself was horrifying. It was until morning that Hanifa did not find water to drink and eventually she slept at 5:00 in the morning. She woke up to the noise of a woman groaning with labour pain. Hanifa stayed with her for half an hour but the woman unfortunately passed away.
After moving a little further, Hanifa met a man who gave her water. She had hoped the mountain to be safe but saw something that left her numb. It was a child trying to suck milk from it's dead mothers breast.
She couldn't pick up the child but the man who gave her water picked it up and said that he knew the family as the woman had her name tattooed on her hands. He had promised Hanifa that he would take the child to it's relatives place.
Hanifa said that they were in the mountain with no food and no water as ISIS was down below. Many of them died due to starvation. Many could not even be burried. They travelled to Syria and from there reached northern Iraq. Hanifa's parents were sick and she herself was also badly injured.
It was after a few days that Hanifa's sisters somehow managed to contact her. They told her that there were thousands of Yezidi women who were handcuffed and made to go through all sorts of brutal and unimaginable atrocities.
The ISIS people would give these young girls to different men and make them go through sexual exploitation. It was a few days later that Hanifa received a phone call again from her sister who told her that she was raped by a group of ISIS men. The young girl later succumbed to the injuries. Hanifa's father could not bear the loss of his child and in a state of shock passed away.
Hanifa had promised her father that she would never leave her siblings alone and make sure that she finds them. Hanifa did not hear from her 9-year-old sister ever again but managed to find two of her sisters. One of the girls was forcibly married to an ISIS man's son but was rescued only two days after the marriage. The young girl had also attempted suicide but the ISIS man stitched up her slit-wrist. She again tried killing herself by jumping from a building and is now being treated in Germany.
Hanifa's mother, sister and brother are staying with the younger sister in Germany. She on the other hand is alone in Iraq looking for her other sisters.
Hanifa's 17-year-old sister has been located as she had been put up on sale by the ISIS abductors who are asking for USD 16,000.
The 30-year-old is possibly doing everything she can to keep her father's promise.
