AhlulBayt News Agency - Hanan disguised herself in a black dress which women in the ISIS held territories must wear, and sneaked out to find a phone to contact her family. After her family found out the location she was held in by the IS militants, they started efforts to find a way to free her from the grip of the militants.
Her family finally managed to bring her back from Manbij to Dohuk with the help of smugglers after making hard efforts and spending a considerable amount of money.
Hanan, a Kurdish Yazidi girl aged 28, was previously abducted by the IS militants during the Sinjar massacre in August 2014. She later escaped Manbij in Syria and she is now living among her relatives in an IDP camp in Dohuk province of Kurdistan Region.
Hanan has put a spotlight on some scenes of her tragic story under IS captivity.
"The IS militants abducted my entire family when they attacked my hometown of Sinjar in August 2014, and later they took us to Tal-Afar where they separated us from one another. The militants then took the girls to Mosul and there they distributed us among their leaders.”
Hanan said that her father and brothers are now held captives by IS, but she didn’t want to reveal their names as she said "they will kill them if they know they're my relatives.”
While depicting another scene from the horrid journey of the Yazidi girls enslaved by IS, she said "one late night, the IS militants rounded up near 350 girls into vehicles and transported them to Raqqa in Syria where they once again distributed us among the militants.”
"They took a number of girls, including me, to Minbaj and after two months in the city, I could one day get a phone while I was dressed up as an IS woman and called my relatives in Kurdistan Region. They were able to send someone to Minbaj to take me away and later bring me back to Kurdistan Region.”
However, the journey out of the IS territories is never easy as one risks with their life to reach safety, but Hanan was exhausted enough to accept every risk she might face, only to put an end to the horrific life in IS captivity.
Hanan is now free, but she is not happy yet since her father and brothers are still in the grip of the extremist group.
She uttered that the IS militants were treating them brutally and constantly insulted them; "they were beasts" she said.
She also said that there are many Yazidi girls in Manbij, but they're kept inside the houses all the time with no access to the outside world.
Regarding the expenses covered by her relatives, she said they have spent $20,000 in the process of freeing her, and they have borrowed the whole sum. Therefore, she called on the organizations and government to take immediate action and free the thousands of Yazidis yet suffering in IS captivity.
Hussein Kuru, the director of Yazidi Abductees Affairs, explained that 2,593 Yazidi women, men and children have so far been freed from IS and they have all received financial aid to rebuild their life back at home.
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