(Vintage Publishing)
Young and innocent—who didn’t even know what “rape” was all about—18-year-old Yazidi girl Farida Khalaf suddenly found herself in the hellish clutches of the Islamic State (ISIS) as a sex slave.
Her world was turned upside down when she and other Yazidis were captured by ISIS fighters in northern Iraq and brought to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the terrorist group’s de facto capital.
Despite the unimaginable horrors she faced, Farida—described as “perpetually brave and resourceful” by The Guardian—never gave up of hope of surviving her ordeal and regaining her freedom.
She did eventually escape from the jihadists’ lair, the harrowing account of which is detailed in the new memoir titled “The Girl Who Beat ISIS,” written by German author and journalist Andrea C. Hoffman.
In the book, Farida recalls the day the militants stormed their village and captured her and her fellow Yazidis.
She says the militants told the villagers to convert to Islam or else die. Some chose to die rather than give up their faith. Farida’s father and oldest brother were among them.
After the killings, the militants loaded Farida and other unmarried women and girls, including her best friend Evin, onto a bus at gunpoint. They were taken to a human market in Raqqa, where they were sold as sex slaves.
“Neither Evin nor I had a precise idea of what ‘rape’ actually meant,” Farida says in the book. “All we knew is that we mustn’t in any circumstances allow them to touch our bodies. If we failed to prevent them from doing that our entire families would be dishonoured.”
Farida valiantly resisted when the ISIS jihadist who bought her began raping her. She kicked and punched the rapist, screamed and attempted to run but was overpowered.
Farida says she was raped countless times. She tried to kill herself but was stopped by her rapist owner who then severely punished her.
But no amount of beating would make her stop resisting her attackers.
She eventually found a way out of hell after her owner inadvertently left her room door unlocked.
She then scampered out, grabbing five other young sex slaves, and fled to the Syrian desert.
However, Farida’s nightmare did not end after her escape and eventual return to her own community.
When Farida and the other Yazidi girls arrived at a refugee camp in Kurdistan, Iraq, they were stigmatised and shamed by their own people for having been raped, resulting in “dishonour” to their families.
Now, the girls’ only hope for redemption and survival is through resettlement in the West.
Farida agreed to share her story to the world, hoping that her testimony would move the West to exert more efforts to ease the suffering of the victims of ISIS persecution and genocide in the Middle East.
“The Girl Who Beat ISIS” will be released on July 7.
