Samia, sold five years ago by ISIS as a sex slave – 01/04/2019

The pain on Samia's face the day of her release says more than any story she can give. his almost four years of captivity. In the video kept by a family member in memory of this day, we see an absolutely destroyed woman who look with panic at the women who kiss her.

Behind her, a boy in a red sweater watches with astonishment. The coldness with which he receives hugs from the family clearly shows that the child does not understand well what is going on around him. He is the youngest of his three children, all released that day. He was barely three years old in August 2014, when the Islamic State attacked the Sinjar region of Iraq. He murdered thousands of men and took with them thousands of children and women sold as bad slaves.

As of August 2014, Samia recalls, ISIS has entered its population and dozens of people kidnapped including 56 members of her family, she and her three children included. Then she was imprisoned with hundreds of Yazidi women who they were sold to members of the Islamic State, in their case a Tunisian man, married to a Syrian woman, who took her with her children to the city of Al Bab in Aleppo province. "It's very humbling to know you're sold"said.

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His eldest son, then 7 years old, He was sent for nine months to training camps. to be indoctrinated by ISIS. And the other two, especially the middle, took them away frequently so as not to escape. They were never all together.

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"I spent all these sad and frightened years in the idea of ​​killing my children, dying in a bomb attack or falling very sick. I even thought that they were going to kill me, but thank goodness we're fine now, "says Samia in his home store, where he now lives near an IDP camp where his parents have been living since they've sought refuge. in this region of Iraqi Kurdistan, after escaping from Sinjar in 2014.

Already it's been two months since she managed to escape from ISIS. At that time, the so-called caliphate was tightening and the families of the Islamic State, along with their Yazidi slaves, were forced to withdraw to the rural areas of Deir Ezzor province. It would be in the southernmost part of this province, where the last battle took place. He fought for the Baghouz enclave which officially fell on March 23rd. But the return to the house was marked by the memory of more than 3,000 Yazidi women and children who still do not appeareven now that ISIS has lost its caliphate. "I'm happy to have survived, but the fact that there are so many women and children, including family members, still missing, is hurting so much," she said. she declared.

On these slopes, near the city of Duhok, turned yellow in the spring, thousands of white tents belonging to Yazidi families live surrounded by the pain left by the death and kidnapping of thousands of members of this group. community

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"Of the remaining 3,000 people left, many have lost their lives, many have been bombed and others are ill, and many of our youth have been trained by ISIS and have been They may have fled to Idlib (northern Syria) or Turkey, "said Abdulah, a Yezidi living in Aleppo, where was dedicated to raising beesand that since 2014 has released 394 Yazidis captured by ISIS.

In addition, it is feared that many Yazidi women were afraid to reveal their identities to the men and women of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who control the east of Syria. Today, they are on the ground of Al Hol with thousands of women and children, many of whom are linked to the Islamic State, who have fled in recent weeks. of territory controlled by jihadists. In this area, to which L & # 39; vanguard He had access on March 12. Most women wear niqab-covered faceswhich makes it even more difficult to distinguish identity.

The overpopulation of Al Hol, who currently houses more than 77,000 peopleit has gone beyond the logistical capabilities of the SDS, particularly the Kurdish forces controlling the camp, and it is almost impossible for every woman, especially the Syrian women and girls, to be identified.

We know that many Yazidis fear to recognize their identity they had children with ISIS fighters and they are afraid of losing their children. "The problem is that no one helps us, no one asks them questions to know if they are Yazidis," Abdulah complains.

Samia's story is a good start to understanding the dilemmas that many of these women have faced, especially in the last weeks of the caliphate, when confusion over ISIS-controlled territory became greater.

She said that when the jihadists would lose control of the city of Al Bab, they withdrew to Deir Ezzor, but once there, the Tunisian died. It was then that the woman ("they treated us even worse than men," she said) told her that she would return to her village and that Samia and her children had nothing to do with her. "Many of these women have managed to escape and are now in other cities in Syria or have returned to their country through Turkey," he said.

But this declaration of freedom, which could have been glorious at another time, only made the tragedy of Samia, which He lived on the street and survived thanks to the remains that other families gave him. There were even families of Syrians who did not sympathize with the Islamic State who had offered to take them with them if they managed to escape. But by then, the ISIS officers They had already identified him and had forbidden him to leave.

The manager who identified her he turned out to be the brother of the woman who had him as a slave. She insisted that she should stay despite the fact that hundreds of women belonging to the Islamic State had left the area after paying smugglers.

One day he rebelled. He told the guerrillas that he had to leave and the man told him that he would send her away with his sister. It was so that he paid a smuggler to take him to the province of Aleppo. However, the mother of the smuggler He asked her where she was from and, knowing her origin, she wanted to know if she had her family number.

Samia never forgot it. The first time he had called them, a year and a half ago, a family of Al Bab, who did not sympathize with the Islamic State, had lent him the phone.

Since then, he has called every time a family of civilians lent him the phone. This is how the man who takes the women out of ISIS called his family, then he contacted Abdulah (who is in turn a parent) and for 15 days, they negotiated the price of their release and that of their children.

"I went to the border near Deir Ezzor myself and paid for it," says Abdulah.

Samia and her children were part of this small group of lucky people to whom their family could pay the ransom. It has been known for a few weeks that many Yazidis are in the hands of people who they are trying to take large sums of money for their release. The caliphate no longer exists, but the drama of the Yazidis is not over. It also adds to the difficult psychological recovery that some people have to experience, especially indoctrinated children. Like the eldest sons of Samia.

"The major has changed a lot and supported the Islamic State group, but since he returned home, he has not changed anymore," concludes the woman whose life also seems to be slowly normalizing with her parents. and her husband, who work as peshmerga in Kurdistan. "Life was terrifying, they did what they wanted and beat my kids in front of me", concludes.

Catalina Gómez – Dohuk (Iraq) – The Vanguardia.

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