Fears for Missing Yazidis as Islamic State Nears Defeat

 

Baseh Hammo was 38 years old when she was captured and enslaved by men fighting for the Islamic State group. She was raped¹ and abused. She was sold 17 times among members of the group. They moved from city to city across a large territory IS forces once controlled in northern Iraq and Syria.

Hammo was freed in January in the Syrian village of Baghouz. Her release came just as the final battle between the militants² and U.S.-led Syrian Kurdish forces was about to begin. That is when an IS member gave her permission to leave the village.

Syrian Kurdish forces found her and reunited her with her two daughters in Iraq a few days later.

Hammo is a Yazidi, a follower³ of a religion that the IS leadership hates. Many Yazidi women and children are still missing since they were kidnapped by the militants. In August of 2014, IS forces attacked several Yazidi towns and villages. They killed more than 5,000 people, and forced many women into sexual slavery.

Many people hoped that some of the 3,000 Yazidis still missing would be found when IS was destroyed.

But, as thousands of people fled Baghouz, only 47 Yazidis were found, notes Hussein Karo. He is the head of the Yazidi Rescue Bureau in Iraq’s regional Kurdish government.

Now, Hammo and Farha Farman, another rescued Yazidi woman, told The Associated Press they fear many may never return home. They fear the offensive on Baghouz may endanger Yazidis who are still in the village.

The two women said some Yazidi women are refusing to leave their children behind with their fathers, men who fight for IS. Some Yazidis are just too afraid to leave.

Hammo said her days as a slave were little more than loneliness and violence.

She was sold 17 times. One of her owners, a Swede, would force her to stay in their home for days without food while he went to fight. Another man, an Albanian, stomped⁵ on her hands with his feet, after she criticized him for buying a 9-year-old slave girl.

Hammo's final months in captivity⁶ were difficult because there was little food. By the end, she was eating grass and other plant life.

"I cannot even look at anything the color green anymore," said Hammo. She had heard there are still 1,000 Yazidis inside Baghouz, including 130 boys training to become jihadi fighters.

Farman, age 21, returned home to Iraq in early February. She does not know what happened to her sister and nine young male relatives who were all captured by IS five years ago.

She said international airstrikes had killed some Yazidis living as slaves.

Hammo said she had asked a Yazidi woman married to an Uzbek IS fighter to leave Baghouz with her. The woman would not leave the two children she had with the man.

"She said she'd blow herself up first," said Hammo.

Another Yazidi woman in Bahgouz had been forced to marry a Saudi man. IS forces took two of her sons to be trained as fighters.

"She said she couldn't leave without them," Hammo said.

Farman was 17 when she was kidnapped by IS from Sinjar. She tried to escape several times, but failed. She was often beaten by her captors.

Her parents paid a smuggler⁷ to help her escape, but he was caught.

Her final captor asked if she would flee with him to Turkey. She refused. He sold her to a smuggler for $10,000, money raised by the Yazidi community. Farman made it to freedom.

Her captor did not. He was caught by the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces outside Baghouz, and has not been heard of since, she said.

Both Farman and Hammo now live in Yazidi camps outside Dohuk in Iraq.

I'm Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

stomp⁴ – v. to put (your foot) down forcefully and noisily

regional – adj. of or related to a given area; serving an area

smuggler – someone who imports or exports products in violation⁸ of the law

jihadi – adj. of or related to a Muslim who supports the idea of a holy war against non-believers

1 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 follower   

n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒

参考例句：

• He is a faithful follower of his home football team.他是他家乡足球队的忠实拥护者。
• Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。

4 stomp   

v.跺（脚），重踩，重踏

参考例句：

• 3.And you go to france, and you go to stomp! 你去法国，你去看跺脚舞！
• 4.How hard did she stomp? 她跺得有多狠？

5 stomped   

v.跺脚，践踏，重踏( stomp的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She stomped angrily out of the office. 她怒气冲冲，重步走出办公室。
• She slammed the door and stomped (off) out of the house. 她砰的一声关上了门，暮暮地走出了屋了。 来自辞典例句

6 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

7 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

8 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。