KHANKE CAMP, Kurdistan Region — Sipan Khalil buries her face in the shoulder of a relative as they hold each other tight, smiling through tears. After seven years in Islamic State (ISIS) captivity, Sipan is finally safe, in the loving embrace of her family.
On August 3, 2014, ISIS militants took over the Shingal district of northern Iraq, committing genocide against the Yazidi minority. Thousands fled their homes as the militants systematically killed men and older women, and enslaved younger women and children. In the first days of the genocide, 1,293 people were killed and 6,417 people were abducted.
Today, 2,760 Yazidis are still missing, according to statistics from the NGO Joint Help for Kurdistan. Many are believed to be held by ISIS fighters and families who melted back into their former lives when their so-called caliphate fell or are detained in camps in northeast Syria (Rojava).
Recently, two women were rescued.
Sipan was 15 when she was captured. This week, her seven-year-long nightmare ended and she was reunited with her family.
“There was food deprivation and torture. We used to be locked in rooms and beaten up. Our condition was similar to that of the dead. There was no life at all, as if we were dead,” she said.
The militants called her Baqiyah – Arabic for eternity. She understands Kurdish, but can no longer speak it. She and her relatives chat and laugh as they do her nails and her hair.
In 2019, when ISIS was defeated in their last Syrian stronghold of Baghouz, Sipan’s captor took her with him when he hid, first to the nearby town of Hajin, Deir ez-Zor province, and then to Daraa in southern Syria. Three months ago, he tried to take Sipan across the border to Lebanon, but he was killed during the journey. She said there was an explosion.
After he was dead, Sipan was finally able to make contact with her family.
“She contacted us two months ago. She’d got our phone number. We then were trying to find her with the Yazidi House. The Yazidi House went to Daraa and did the paperwork to bring her back,” said Sipan’s brother Bahjat Khalil.
Yazidi House is an aid organization based in Rojava. Working with Rojava security forces, they have rescued 410 Yazidi women.
“Shingal women and their children can be found in all parts of Syria. Last week, we rescued a woman in the Daraa area,” said Farouq Tozo, co-chair of Yazidi House.
In their house in Hasaka is Zere Mito Shivan, another woman who was recently rescued. The 25-year-old was found two weeks ago in a village, in Deir ez-Zor province.
After ISIS was defeated in Baghouz, Zere’s captor took her and his family to his home village Chihail. The village was under control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led force allied with the US-led global coalition against ISIS. She was close to freedom, but lived there imprisoned for two years with no access to a phone.
“We’ve actually seen a lot of miseries. We used to be imprisoned. We were beaten up if we disobeyed them. They used to beat us with their hands, cables, sticks and iron sticks. They used to hit our heads against the walls. It was very painful,” she said.
She was rescued in a raid by Kurdish security forces on July 19 and is now waiting to return to her family in Shingal.
Sipan and her family were reunited on Tuesday in Khanke camp, Duhok where some of her relatives are living. Thousands of Yazidis are still living in camps, unable to return to their homes because of lack of reconstruction, services, and security.
All 12 members of Sipan’s family were abducted or missing under ISIS. Her father and brother are still unaccounted for and her mother and four siblings have moved to Germany.
“We are now back, thanks be to God. I’ve now started a new chapter in my life. Now that I can stand on my own, I’m so happy. Even though I’m surrounded by my family, I cannot celebrate this happiness because my father and brother are still missing,” she said.
