ISIS gangs had committed a genocide on August 3, 2014 after the KDP peshmerga fled from Shengal. They abducted hundreds of Yazidi women and children and sold them in slave markets.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) free Yazidi women gangs abducted from Shengal in all areas they liberate. The most recent woman and children rescued by the SDF were Xezal Ali Qolo, and Daliya, Habib, Ali and Usama aged between 4 and 9.

Xezal had been abducted from the Solax village in Shengal with her husband Hisen Xidir Shemo and their children, and was taken to Tal Afar afterwards. The gangs held her in a building before transferring her to the Badoc dungeon where she was tortured for two weeks. She was then separated from her husband and still doesn’t know what happened to him.

SOLD IN RAQQA MARKETS, FORCED TO CONVERT TO ISLAM

After she was separated from her husband, Xezal was sent to Raqqa with her children and sold to a gang member named Abdurrahman from Syria. Xezal was subjected to constant violence, the gang member beat her with a stick and cables in front of her children and called her an infidel.

Another gang member named Abdullah sold her to several other gang members, and finally gave her away o a gang member named Ebu Xalid from Tunisia, who tried to convert her to Islam by force: “I had to convert because I was afraid something would happen to my children. The gang member named Ebu Xalid died as he was planting landmines in Deir ez-Zor. He used to threaten to kill my children if I didn’t comply with his wishes.”

TAKEN TO THE “GUEST ROOM” AND HER ESCAPE ATTEMPT

After the gang member named Ebu Xalid died, Xezal was taken to a place called the “guest room”, which is where the women abducted by gangs are taken after their husbands die to be sold off like slaves. Xezal attempted to escape several times, but every time she was noticed by the gangs and failed.

After Raqqa and most areas in Northern Syria were cleared of ISIS by SDF fighters, Xezal and her 4 children were sent to Deir ez-Zor. They have been rescued from the Sus village in rural Deir ez-Zor by SDF fighters.

Xezal Ali Qolo thanked the SDF and YPJ (Women's Defense Units) fighters who rescued her and her children from tyranny as she was handed over to the Qamishlo Canton Women’s Council to be sent to Shengal.