BAGHDAD – Terrorism has affected a large part of the globe. People havelost their lives, faced displacement and much more.
Today when we think that we have to some extent been successful incountering terrorism, this narrative by two women from Iraq travelling toIndia, accompanied by a few men will send a chill down your spine.
They primarily came to India to draw attention towards the plight ofYezidis.
These women have accounts of the horrifying incidents of genocide that isgoing 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 lifebefore the ISIS came in 2014. She was born seven years after her parentsgot married.
Hanifa, who studied till the 9th grade had to drop out of school because ofher mother’s poor health and started looking after her younger siblings ata very early age.
Hanifa said that she had a beautiful life before 2014. She had nine sistersand a brother who along with Hanifa lived with their parents in a villagenamed Katania.
It was in August 2014 on an ill-fated day when Hanifa heard the gun shotsfor the first time and she along with her family tried to run away becausethey 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 madethem breakfast . We did not have an option but to walk towards a safer areain order to save our lives. It was one of our neighbours who helped me andtook my parents in the car towards the area near the mountains. I left myparents there and came back to get my siblings. They were too young to doanything on their own. It was after we covered a few miles on foot that westopped near a house to take some rest and drink water. There were otherfamilies taking shelter as well. I was about to reach the well when theISIS arrived. They started firing gun shots, throwing grenades and pushedpeople inside the house.”,* said Hanifa.
Hanifa said that her brother was 12-years-old , who somehow managed to runand reach the mountains. She got injured in the firing and was hidingherself from the ISIS.
The ISIS reportedly took cars from the neighbouring villages andtransported about 60 women which included Hanifa’s five younger sisterstoo.The told all the men to convert to Islam and killed the ones whoresisted.
According to Hanifa, who witnessed the dreadful day, she said that one ofthe men resisted converting to Islam and as a consequence was shot severaltimes and then beheaded by the ISIS.
Hanifa narrating the barbaric incident recounts that she saw pools ofblood, endless number of corpses surrounding her. There were animalsfeeding on the dead and the sight in itself was horrifying. It was untilmorning that Hanifa did not find water to drink and eventually she slept at5:00 in the morning. She woke up to the noise of a woman groaning withlabour pain. Hanifa stayed with her for half an hour but the womanunfortunately passed away.
After moving a little further, Hanifa met a man who gave her water. She hadhoped the mountain to be safe but saw something that left her numb. It wasa 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 upand said that he knew the family as the woman had her name tattooed on herhands. He had promised Hanifa that he would take the child to it’srelatives place.
Hanifa said that they were in the mountain with no food and no water asISIS was down below. Many of them died due to starvation. Many could noteven be burried. They travelled to Syria and from there reached northernIraq. 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 contacther. They told her that there were thousands of Yezidi women who werehandcuffed and made to go through all sorts of brutal and unimaginableatrocities.
The ISIS people would give these young girls to different men and make themgo through sexual exploitation. It was a few days later that Hanifareceived a phone call again from her sister who told her that she was rapedby 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 ofshock passed away.
Hanifa had promised her father that she would never leave her siblingsalone and make sure that she finds them. Hanifa did not hear from her9-year-old sister ever again but managed to find two of her sisters. One ofthe girls was forcibly married to an ISIS man’s son but was rescued onlytwo days after the marriage. The young girl had also attempted suicide butthe ISIS man stitched up her slit-wrist. She again tried killing herself byjumping from a building and is now being treated in Germany.
Hanifa’s mother, sister and brother are staying with the younger sister inGermany. She on the other hand is alone in Iraq looking for her othersisters.
Hanifa’s 17-year-old sister has been located as she had been put up on saleby the ISIS abductors who are asking for USD 16,000.
The 30-year-old is possibly doing everything she can to keep her father’spromise.