After being kidnapped by ISIS gangs in Shengal, Nadya Hesen Hewlo was sold to five different ISIS members in slave markets. Her new-born baby died of malnutrition and her daughter went missing. Nadya spoke of the horror she suffered under ISIS captivity.
Nadya (45) was mother of two and expecting another baby when she was kidnapped by ISIS gangs in Koco village near Shengal in August 2014. ISIS gangs first killed her mother and father in front of her eyes and took her to Tal Afar and then to Mosul. She gave birth to her baby during this journey.
About 40 days after her abduction, Nadya was taken to Raqqa and sold to a Saudi ISIS member as a slave. She was forced to work for about two months where her new-born son died of malnutrition.
“My son was crying all the time. I couldn’t give him food or milk. One day that man told me that he is poor and he can’t get milk for the baby. And I asked him ‘so why are you keeping us?’. He didn’t say anything. One morning I woke up and I saw that my son was dead. I hadn’t even named him” Nadya said.
Nadya was sold again in slave market, this time to a Turkish ISIS member named Abu Yahya. He took Nadya to Aleppo and left her without food or water for three days. She tried to escape but she was caught and brought to a slave market again. This time she was sold to a Saudi ISIS member Abu Barah who lived in Al-Bab at the time. Abu Barah took Nadya’s daughter Hevi and renamed her Esma and sent her to an unknown place.
Nadya didn’t hear about the fate of her daughter after that.
After days of torture and loss of her daughter, Nadya was sold to Turkmen ISIS member whose name was Abu Sena. Abu Sena offered Nadya to convert to Islam to be a free woman again. Tired of all the torture, Nadya accepted his offer.
Nadya was then taken to Madafi (Arabic word for guesthouse) where wives of dead ISIS members and captive women were kept.
“A man named Sheikh was responsible for Madafi. He was holding a big notebook in which he kept all details about the women there, like where we come from, who we are. There were also Sunni and Arab women there. They keep you there until someone buys you” she said.
Nadya told that when a woman refused to leave, she was whipped and taken away by force. She said sometimes women were taken away with their children but in some cases the children were separated from their mothers and trained by ISIS.
After 14 months under ISIS Captivity, Nadya was finally able to escape with the help of another Êzidî woman after she was transferred to the Madafi in Manbij.
