Two weeks after being rescued by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from Gaza, Yazidi survivor Fawzia Amin Sido shared the traumatic experiences she endured while in captivity under ISIS. She described how, at the age of nine, she and her brothers were captured and forced to walk from Sinjar to Tal Afar. During this time, they were deprived of food for three days, only to be later given rice and meat, which they later learned was the flesh of Yazidi infants.
Unusual taste
Sido explained that the food had an unusual taste and caused stomach issues for some of the captives. Later, they were informed that the meat was from Yazidi babies, with the captors even showing images of beheaded infants, telling them, “These are the children you just ate.” One woman reportedly died of heart failure after hearing this, and a mother recognized her child by the hands in the photos. Sido expressed that they had no choice in the matter, saying it was a painful experience to know what had happened but that it was beyond their control.
Fawzia Sido was one of many Yazidi women enslaved by ISIS in 2014 during the group’s period of terror. The Yazidi community, a religious minority in northern Iraq, faced unspeakable atrocities.
Yazidi allegations against ISIS
Her account supports earlier allegations that ISIS forced captives to consume human flesh. In 2017, Yazidi parliamentarian Vian Dakhil first exposed these practices, but Sido’s testimony provides further confirmation of the horrors inflicted.
Sido’s ordeal went beyond the forced consumption of human flesh. She spent nine months in an underground prison with 200 other Yazidi women and children, where some children died from contaminated water. She was also sold to various jihadi fighters, including Abu Amar al-Makdisi, with whom she had two children.
Eventually, she was rescued by the IDF in a coordinated operation with the US Embassy and returned to her family in Iraq. However, her children remain in Gaza with her captor’s family, where they are being raised as Arab Muslims. Sido shared that until her return to Iraq, she remained in the status of “sabaya,” an Arabic term referring to a young woman held captive and sexually exploited.
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