A Yazidi woman abducted by the Islamic State (ISIS) during the group’s 2014 genocide campaign revealed on Tuesday that she was held captive by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and one of his wives after her family was killed.
Sipan Khalil, now 26, recounted her story of brutal and repeated assaults, including those committed against young girls. She spoke to Rudaw from Berlin, where she has lived for the past four years after escaping ISIS and relocating to Germany.
‘In 2014, I fell into the hands of ISIS along with my family in the village of Kocho,’ Khalil said. ‘They killed my father, they killed my brother, they killed many of my uncles, and they killed my cousins.’
During the ISIS assault on the Yazidi town of Sinjar in Nineveh province, extremists abducted over 6,400 Yazidi women and children, subjecting many to sexual slavery and physical abuse.
Captivity in the House of al-Baghdadi
Khalil said she was held by senior ISIS fighters, including the group’s leader, for an extended period.
‘At first, I was in the house of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s deputy,’ she said. ‘After they were bombed and he was killed, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s wife took me to her house. I used to help her in the house, and I looked after her children.’
Describing al-Baghdadi, Khalil called him a ‘terrorist.’
‘I will say one thing: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a terrorist. And ‘terrorist’ is a very big word,’ she said. ‘We know that when we say someone is a terrorist, it means they have no religion, no conscience and no mercy in their heart.’
She added, ‘He committed many assaults against Yazidi girls – not only against me, and it wasn’t just me who was afraid of his assaults. There were some very young girls, aged 8 or 9. He assaulted them. He was a very bad person, and his wife was even worse than him.’
Khalil said she was held in al-Baghdadi’s home for six months because ISIS leaders feared she had documented information about kidnappings.
Documenting Crimes and Solitary Confinement
‘They found a notebook on me where I had written things down – which person brought Yazidis, their names… During that time, his wife found that notebook on me and they committed many assaults against me.’
She was subsequently placed in solitary confinement as punishment.
‘They hid me in a cell for a full week. There was no food, I didn’t see any light, it was dark,’ she recalled.
She later survived an attempted trafficking operation after ISIS was defeated. ‘They tried to sell me to Lebanon, to another country,’ Khalil said. ‘And you could say God willed that a bomb exploded near our car.’ The explosion killed her captor and wounded Khalil.
A local family eventually helped her return to Iraq. Her life has since improved significantly in Germany, where she now cares for her surviving siblings.
Khalil is studying and working at the Farida Organization, a human rights non-profit founded by Yazidi survivors. ‘I take care of my brothers and sisters because my parents are gone – we lost our parents,’ she said.
Warnings of a ‘Recurring Genocide’
Khalil stated that recent images of violence against Kurdish residents in Aleppo triggered painful memories of the ISIS assault on Yazidis.
‘It reminded me of those days in 2014 when they attacked us Yazidis and killed all of us,’ she said. ‘I say this is a recurring genocide.’
She warned that without international support, similar crimes could be repeated against Kurdish communities.
‘If there is no international support, they will commit many assaults against those Kurds,’ she said. ‘They will commit similar assaults against their women, and they will kill their men – just like what happened to us in 2014.’
Khalil now speaks publicly across Germany to ensure the world does not forget the atrocities committed against Yazidis and Kurds.
‘That is why, at every event that happens in Germany, every conference that happens, we try to show people what happened to us Kurds and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq,’ she said. The goal is to ensure ‘that genocide doesn’t happen to us again.’
About The Author
