Nine Days in the Caliphate: A Yazidi Woman's Ordeal as an Islamic State Captive

Der Spiegel ^ | October 15, 2014 | Ralf Hoppe

[Second Amendment First]

When Islamic State fighters conquered the border region between Iraq and Syria, the Yazidi village of Kocho also fell into their hands. Twenty-year-old Nadia was among dozens of young women who were abducted and abused. This is the story of her ordeal.

During the ninth night of her captivity, Nadia seized an unexpected opportunity to flee.

Back on the first day, the men who kidnapped Nadia and the other young women as hostages and sex slaves had away taken their shoes. Escaping barefoot was out of the question. As the women could see from the windows, the surrounding terrain was rough and rocky, and they would end up with bleeding cuts and gashes all over their feet.

The house in which they were held captive had many rooms and the young women were frequently moved from one to another. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the frequent moves; they were apparently dependent on the whims of their captors. But in one room stood a wardrobe, inside of which Nadia found a pair of pink tennis shoes under some rags. Though they were a few sizes too small for her, they might just do.

Six men -- her captors, rapists and tormentors -- stood guard from day one. But on the ninth night, Nadia noticed that four of the men were apparently absent, perhaps sleeping elsewhere. Whatever the case, only two of the Islamic State fighters were sitting in the kitchen that night -- and they were distracted. It looked as though they were arguing.

[Second Amendment First]

Islamic State fighters came to Nadia's town several times, always at intervals of one or two days. They were at pains to demonstrate their military strength, roaring into town and announcing that they were the new lords of the land. The men wore mirrored sunglasses, kept their faces masked with black scarves, and carried pistols and daggers in their belts, recalls Nadia. At first, they led the townspeople to believe that they were safe, as long as they handed over their weapons, mostly old hunting rifles and kitchen knives. They told the men of Kocho that disarmament was the price to pay they had to pay to avoid being killed by Islamic State fighters.

After the weapons were collected and piled up on the back of a pickup truck, the jihadists herded the residents into the school. They separated the men from the women and took away the men in small groups. The women heard shots all afternoon and were paralyzed with fear, says Nadia. Then the older women were separated from the younger ones.

[ExCTCitizen]

The libs got the war on women wrong. It isnt the Republicans, it is the religion they kiss asses of, the religion they support and the religion to keep female BAREFOOT AND PREGNANT and religion of pedophilia - Islam.

[eyeamok]

Obviously the writer has a problem with Islam, doesn’t he know Islam is a Religion of Peace??

[Travis McGee]

When they come to collect your guns, SHOOT THEM.

[DoughtyOne]

There is no humanity in these filthy beasts.

[X-spurt]

Damn straight, regardless of who they are!

[NonValueAdded]

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke

[gettinolder]

More somber lessons of the effect of gun control.

Better to die standing up with the old hunting rifle in hand, waft of smoke drifting from the barrel, than stacked in a ditch, hands bound.