Hundreds of Yazidi Women Have Committed Suicide While Captive of ISIS

CNN reported from the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq on the fate of Yazidi women held captive by the Islamic State and their attempts to escape or commit suicide. Amna Said Hassan, a former member of the Iraqi Parliament, is one of the individuals trying to help these captive women in various ways. One method is through phone calls and assisting their escape from captivity. Amna speaks daily with several of these women. The trembling and terrified voices on the other end reveal how desperate they are and how much they can no longer endure the conditions of captivity. In early summer 2014, when the Islamic State captured the city of Mosul, Amna, like many others, thought that the Yazidis living in the mountainous region of Sinjar were safe. Amna says, "We thought to ourselves that Sinjar has no oil or anything important, and there is no reason for them to attack that area." However, the Islamic State fighters attacked Sinjar. Sinjar had no oil but possessed another valuable asset for the group: its people. The fighters killed Yazidi men and captured women and children. This group claims that capturing non-Muslim women and raping them is permissible according to the Quran. From their perspective, the Yazidi minority living in parts of northern Iraq is considered devil-worshippers and has been severely oppressed and subjected to violence. The United Nations has stated that the Islamic State has committed genocide against the Yazidi minority. Many families of missing Yazidi women and girls come to Amna Said Hassan for help. She says, "People know me. I am also Yazidi and from Sinjar. I know many of those who have been kidnapped. Some of them were relatives or neighbors and call me." Amna, along with her husband Khalil, runs a network to find and rescue these captive women. Amna makes phone calls while Khalil goes to dangerous areas on the Iraq-Syria border to find and rescue them. So far, the couple has managed to free over a hundred of these captive women and return them to their hometown. One of the first to return home was a 35-year-old woman and mother of six children. These women were kidnapped along with all their children and sold as slaves by the Islamic State. In her phone calls with Amna, she recounts the suffering she endured: "They filled two large trucks with the women and children from the village and took them to another location that I do not know where it is. When they were forcibly loading people into the trucks, one of the women was arguing with them. They killed her right there." Despite all the calamities that befell this woman, she eventually managed to escape captivity. However, many others were not so fortunate. Amna says many of these women, who have been repeatedly raped and abused by ISIS members, chose to commit suicide instead of waiting for freedom. Amna Said Hassan, crying, adds, "Our entire goal has been to save them. So far, about a hundred of these women and girls have committed suicide. I have pictures of several of them. When they suffer this much, they lose hope, and our contact with them is cut off." The U.S. State Department has awarded Amna a special prize for her efforts to rescue Yazidi women from captivity. John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, described her efforts by saying, "Amna's courageous actions in defending the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq show the international community what horrific conditions these people are facing and also demonstrate her unwavering determination to help the victims and rescue those who have been kidnapped and are in captivity." However, Amna cannot shake the thoughts of those she has been unable to help. She says, "I cannot sleep; I cannot forget what calamities have befallen them. They ask us in phone calls when we will free them. But I have no answer to this question. I am not a government; I do not have special power. I am just an ordinary person. Thinking about all this is very difficult." Many have joined the fight against the Islamic State. But Amna's weapon is not bombs and bullets; it is her phone. With these phone calls, she gives hope and promises to the Yazidi women who are captives and slaves that one day they will be helped.