Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • NPR

    'I Want To Go Back': The Yazidi Girls Who Did Not Want To Be Rescued From ISIS

    The girls, ages 10 and 11, were held captive for years and remember nothing of their Yazidi heritage. They miss the ISIS woman who looked after them and tell rescuers they want to return to her.
    by Jane Arraf Jun 19, 2019 6 minutes
    Jeelan, 11, the day after being rescued from an ISIS family that had held her captive for the past two years. She says she doesn't remember her Yazidi family. "I want to go back to Um Ali," she says, referring to the Iraqi woman who had been pretending to be her mother in a detention camp for ISIS families. "Um Ali is my real family."

    Zahura Sinan passes around wrapped candy to guests sitting on carpets in the family's living room in a village in northeastern Syria. It's to celebrate the first day of freedom for two Yazidi girls, liberated from the ISIS family who held them captive for two years.

    "This is like their birthday," says Sinan's son Mahmoud Rasho, the Yazidi official who found the girls in a detention camp for ISIS families. For now, his family is taking care of them at their home near the city of Hasakah.

    The rescue of two Yazidi girls — who survived a genocide that saw more than 1,000 killed and an estimated 5,000 more from this ancient religious minority held hostage — would normally be a joyous occasion.

    But these girls didn't want to be rescued.

    Jeelan, 11, sits with her head bowed and her arms wrapped around her knees, a patterned brown-and-white scarf that had covered her hair wrapped around her thin shoulders

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from NPR

    NPR4 min read
    From Jailhouse Melodies To Vanishing Salmon, Rejuvenate Your Listening History
    Enjoy the spring bloom, get outside, listen to a new podcast! The NPR One team has gathered a few returning favorites as well as some fresh releases from across public media.
    NPR3 min read
    A Cartoonist's Guide To Navigating 'Normal'
    Cartoonist Liana Finck has spent years learning the "rules" of social interactions. She's not convinced. Her comics poke fun at the contradictions and absurdities of daily life and modern parenting.
    NPR11 min read
    Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets' Is Written In Blood
    With The Tortured Poets Department, the defining pop star of her era has made an album as messy and confrontational as any good girl's work can get.

    Related Books & Audiobooks