Women’s Self Defense Units, YPJ have liberated a Yazidi girl, Faryal Khader, from the hands of ISIS
Faryal Khader was only a 12-year-old girl when ISIS brutally attacked the city of Shengal in 2014. While Faryal and her family attempted to escape they were blocked by ISIS. Devastatingly, brave Faryal, along with several members of her family were captured by ISIS. While ISIS invaded Shengal, they rounded up people of all ages, executed many Yazidis and kidnapped a large number of civilians. Ruthlessly concentrating their efforts on rounding up women and girls in order to sell them into slavery.
Faryal Khader has spoken about her suffering with the YPJ. She shared how ISIS had taken those captured to a large school in Tal Afar where they were separated by gender and age; women and girls were kept apart from men and boys. The women were kept in Tal Afar and the girls brought to Mosul. Here ISIS members selected young girls to be their personal slaves. They sold the girls regardless of their age, many being much younger than Faryal. The girls were held for a while in Mosul, before being taken to Shaddadi in Syria. Faryal was with two of her young female cousins while she was imprisoned there.
Faryal suffered great trauma and lived in constant terror knowing that after their names were registered, ISIS members would buy them as slaves. They were treated like commodities and “spoils of war.” Any girls and women who were brave enough to attempt to fight back, to try and refuse to be taken were tortured in public for everyone to see.
During her time in Shaddadi, while still only 12 years old, Faryal was sold by ISIS three times. In addition to the suffering of the little girl while captive, she was transferred again to Raqqa together with another girl and there she was sold again one last time. She remained a slave to an ISIS official named Abu Muhammad until she was 15 years old. She was raped many times, fell pregnant while still just a child herself and eventually gave birth to a small boy. Her torturer Abu Muhammad was then hit and killed in an airstrike by the international coalition at the beginning of a campaign to liberate the city of Raqqa.
After all of this pain and torment, Faryal mentioned how she, along with other captive women, were forced to relocate. They were made to leave Raqqa during its liberation by the Syrian Democratic Forces, and traveled until they arrived in Baghouz, Deir ez-Zor. She suffered from hunger and extreme cold while crossing the desert, with everything made that much harder by having to carry a newborn baby in her arms. After staying for a short period, they were transferred to the city of Al-Bab, where she spent nearly two years, before ending up in Idlib.
After all the suffering Faryal had endured from such a young age, she had dreamed and plotted to escape the injustice that she was facing. She remained vigilant the whole time, looking for a way to flee the reoccuring rape and assault that ISIS had inflicted during her time in captivity. Simultaneously, the Women’s Self Defense Units made every effort to liberate her, eventually succeeding in bringing Faryal to the regions of North and East Syria. During her time in captivity, Faryal was sold five times. She was not told anything about the whereabouts of her relatives, and didn’t even know if they were still alive or not.
Once the Women’s Self Defense Units liberated Faryal, and succeeded in bringing her to the regions of North and East Syria, Faryal expressed her gratitude towards our forces. Since being liberated, Faryal is finally free and is secure in the knowledge that her suffering has ended. She also highlighted that many more girls are still being held captive by ISIS, and that every effort needs to be made to free them all.
YPJ Media Center
