Yazidi Woman Forced Into Sexual Slavery by ISIS Rescued After a Decade of Captivity

A Yazidi woman who was abducted by ISIS when she was 11 years old has finally been rescued from the clutches of the terrorist group and tearfully reunited with her family in Iraq.Fawzia Amin Sido, now 21, was just a child when she was abducted by Islamic State terrorists and endured ten years of captivity, including being forced to bear children with her captor, according to Ynet News.The woman was rescued by Israeli Defense Forces from Gaza. Her rescue, which was aided in part by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, underscores a complex diplomatic process involving coordination between multiple countries, including Iraq, the American embassies at Baghdad and Amman, as well as the government of Jordan, officials for Iraq’s Foreign Ministry told the Israeli news agency.“Fauzia was held captive by a Palestinian Hamas-ISIS member for years,” said the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s digital diplomacy division, David Saranga. “Now, she has reunited with her family. Her story is a reminder of the cruelty faced by Yazidi children who were taken by force. Some 101 Israelis are still held hostage in Gaza.”Ms. Sido was kidnapped from her family’s home at Sinjar, Iraq, in 2014, according to The Jerusalem Post. She was then incarcerated by her captors and eventually “sold” at Raqqa, Syria, and forced to marry a Palestinian man with alleged ties to the Hamas terrorist organization and ISIS. She endured physical and sexual abuse and gave birth to two children at a young age.The woman and her captor lived a nomadic life, moving between villages along the Syrian-Iraqi border. When the militant was killed in an attack in Syria, she was coaxed by his family to join them as they moved through Turkey and Egypt before arriving at Gaza in 2020.The Yazidi people are an ethno-religious minority group from the Kurdistan region of Iraq who started facing severe persecution from The Islamic State the same year Ms. Sido was abducted. The terror group’s brutal campaign led to thousands killed and many of their women and young girls forced into sexual slavery. Thousands are still displaced from the region, still living in refugee camps nearly a decade later.Efforts to secure Ms. Sido’s freedom were partly facilitated by a Canadian businessman known as “The Jewish Schindler” for his role in rescuing thousands of Yazidis from ISIS captivity, Steve Maman. He told the Post that this was the “most difficult rescue” he has ever undertaken.“This, for me, is a ray of light. [She] has a chance to rebuild her life,” he said. “She was 11 years old when they took her, and no child chooses at that age to become a hostage at the hands of ISIS-Hamas.”“This is a happy occasion, but I can’t say I can celebrate wholeheartedly because I still have over 100 brothers and sisters sitting in dire situations in Gaza, and I will continue to act for their return in whichever way I can,” Mr. Maman said.

Yazidi Woman Forced Into Sexual Slavery by ISIS Rescued After a Decade of Captivity

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