A young Yazidi woman sold to Islamic State militants across Iraq and Syria tells of her horrific ordeal that lasted a year and a half
Aged 19, Nasreen was captured by Islamic State as they overran the Yazidi heartland of Sinjar. In this interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, she tells how she was sold from town to town across Iraq and Syria by Islamic State militants.
I am Nasreen from Tel Binat, I am 21 years old.
Islamic State kidnapped 19 members of my family. They are missing, we don’t know anything about them. Islamic State destroyed our lives and future.
On 3rd August 2014, Islamic State entered Sinjar. After two hours they separated us from the men, and took us girls and women to Tal Afar school. In four days at Tal Afar school they did everything to us. They were shouting at us. They weren’t giving us food. We were so scared, our cries and shouts were approaching the sky. They were shouting at us when we were crying.
They took me with the girls to Mosul. They separated the girls and the women. They separated the women who had 2, 3 or 4 children with them. Their attitude was to separate us.
On the 4th day, we went back to Tal Afar. They took us to a school called Al Muqadasa which was riddled with dirt. We stayed for 15 days in that school.
Every morning or midday their leaders would come and inspect room by room to check if any girls remained. And if they liked anyone, they would take her.
I didn’t know what they were going to do with me. Every second I was just thinking: 'Are they going to kill me or not?'
They took us to Syria in 10 buses. They took us to Raqqa. We were about 900 women and children.
There was someone called Fuad Alshami in Syria. He was very, very bad to us. He wrote the names of us all. There were people coming daily, even some of their leaders in Syria and they would take any woman they liked. And when they shout a name and she ignored it, they would beat her and deprive her of food as a punishment. They said when we call a name and she doesn’t respond, we will strip her naked and put her in the street.
They moved me from that house after 15 days to another underground headquarter, but still in Raqqa. The underground base was terrible. We had to put up with these conditions, all of us. They were coming every day to look at us, to laugh at us. We stayed there 3 days then they took us to Homs.
They took us to a military zone in the Hama countryside to a village called Qastal. There was no one in that village but IS militants. They put us in a house which was bombed by an aircraft. We could see the sky from inside the house.
We stayed there four days without food, water or clothes and no blankets to cover our children. There were no windows so the wind was blowing inside. Our children were crying because of the cold and the intensity of their hunger.
Someone came who was about 27 years old. His name was Abou-Yousif Altounsi. He told me to stand up, and said 'bring your bag and come with me'. He tried with me three times then he started to shout at me and swore he would kill me if I didn’t go with him.
He took me to Tabqa. He was making armoured vehicles for the Islamic State. He had a workshop with his friend maintaining broken Islamic State cars. I stayed about two months then went back to Homs again.
I was moved back to the Hama countryside to a village called Hamada Omar. They put us in a house with two girls from Kocho. Two women from Kocho and seven children. It was a military zone. The bombings were 24 hours a day. The night wasn't like night, neither the day. We were dead in their hands.
We hadn’t eaten at home, just running from one house to the other. Instead of all the bad treatment, the aircraft was doing even worse. It wasn’t bombing them, only us. We stayed there for four months: us, the two women and her children.
Even if everyone knew who we were and that they could hear our voice, even with the goodness of people, nothing seemed hopeful.
I keep thinking about the girls who are still in their grip. Although I have been freed, I always think of them. Life was like being in hell in their hands. We had no choice but to do what they asked us to do.
So many times I thought of committing suicide. One time I even held a knife but my friends prevented me. You know what I thought? If I killed myself, I wouldn’t benefit and Islamic State would be pleased by that.
I collected my strength and kept praying to God that I might survive one day to tell the world what they did to us.
It has been one year and seven months and no one cared about us. The world is not listening to us and not doing anything for us.
We want them to fix a date to get our honour back. It is not just our honour. It is the honour of every honourable person in the world. The honour of everyone who has a sister and daughter.
I ask European countries to do something for us, and recognise our genocide.
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