ISIS SEX SLAVE NADIA MURAD’S
and he must free her. “I had to convince her she would come back and I would be here for her,” he says.
Huzni had contacts in Mosul and persuaded a friend to help. At huge risk, they arranged for a hitman to track Jilan’s captor and kill him by crashing into his car.
Of course it was far from easy – not least because Jilan was often with him. But one day he was alone. “Yes, they actually killed him,” Huzni repeats, his disbelief audible.
Even then Jilan’s situation was perilous. But two weeks later there was an opportunity for Huzni’s friend to swoop.
“They got her to a checkpoint and handed her to the Iraq army,” he explains, smiling broadly again. Later, we are shown the couple’s wedding video on a phone, their whole village dancing. Chillingly, we are told: “Eighty per cent of those people are now dead.”
For the Yazidis who survived, grief still dominates their lives. Sinjar is devastated so they cannot return home.
Thousands live in refugee camps; only lucky ones, like Nadia, claimed asylum abroad. She now lives in Germany.
Jilan’s brother and father are missing. Nadia and Huzni have a nephew, sister-inlaw and niece still missing and two nieces killed. Jilan and hundreds more women receive counselling for their trauma.
But to meet the beaming couple is confirmation happiness is achievable.
The United Nations Population Fund provides crucial psychological support to Yazidi women. For information and to find out how to donate, visit iraq.unfpa.org
We were crying and laughing. We never thought we’d see each other again JILAN ON FIRST PHONE CALL TO HUSBAND DURING CAPTIVITY