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Lamya Bashar, a Yazidi girl who was in ISIS captivity for 20 months, was interviewed on ON TV (Egypt) on November 18, 2018. Lamya said that all her male family members were killed, and that she hasn't heard from her mother in over four years. She described the slave girl market at the shari'a court in Mosul, where ISIS would put up pictures, names, and prices of the girls who were being sold. Lamya and her sister were bought by an ISIS member who would rape and beat them together. She was 15 at the time, and she said that she wanted to kill herself after the first time she was raped. She was later separated from her sister and was purchased by a second ISIS member, who forced her to work in a shop that made carbombs and explosive devices. Lamya and two of her friends escaped from Hawija, Iraq, and during the escape one of her friends stepped on an explosive device. The explosion killed the two other girls, burned Lamya's face, and blinded her. She described that moment, saying: "All I wanted was to die and find rest."
Following are excerpts:
Lamya Bashar: [ISIS] entered Sinjar and my town. They killed the men and took the women and children. They killed the men and took the women and children. So they killed the men and then abducted the women and children.
Interviewer: So they killed the men and then abducted the women and children.
Lamya Bashar: Yes. They took me and I stayed with them for one year and eight months. At first, they took me to Mosul. There was a big hall there with thousands of girls like me – some were younger than me, and others were older. All of them were Yazidi.
[…]
They raped Yazidi women because they regarded them as infidels. They said: “We are allowed to kill Yazidi men and take the women as slave girls.”
[…]
Interviewer: How were the girls and women distributed among the [ISIS] men?
Lamya Bashar: They took some of them to Tal Afar, where they gathered them in a hall. ISIS men came and they would sell the women to these men. Each man would choose a girl and take her.
Interviewer: So every emir and every [ISIS] man would choose one girl or more?
Lamya Bashar: Yes. Some of them took two, three, four, or five women.
[…]
My family – my father, two brothers, uncles, and cousins – stayed in the town and were killed there.
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I still don’t know what happened to my mother. It has been four and a half years since I last heard of her. I also have a sister missing in Syria with her three children.
Interviewer: Your sister and her three children were taken to Syria.
Lamya Bashar: They took my sister as a slave girl and took her children away from her.
Interviewer: They took her children away from her.
Lamya Bashar: Yes.
Interviewer: Where do they put the children?
Lamya Bashar: They would take the boys to training centers, where they would teach them about weapons and religion, so that they would become members of ISIS.
Interviewer: Boys are taken to training centers.
Lamya Bashar: Yes.
Interviewer: And what about the little girls?
Lamya Bashar: They would take 9-year-old girls as slave girls, and would rape them.
[…]
A Saudi emir came and took both me and my sister.
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Interviewer: What happened to you there?
Lamya Bashar: We stayed in a place in Allepo for two days. He raped me and my sister together.
Interviewer: This was the first time you were raped?
Lamya Bashar: Yes.
Interviewer: Is your sister older than you?
Lamya Bashar: Yes, she’s 25.
Interviewer: And how old were you at the time, Lamya?
Lamya Bashar: I was 15 years old.
Interviewer: You were raped together…
Lamya Bashar: Yes, he raped us and beat us. Then he took us back to the hall and said he wanted to take another girl.
[…]
The rape was very difficult. After the first time, I wanted to kill myself so that they would not rape me again, because it was very difficult. But I did not have the opportunity. He would beat me. They would tie the girls up and rape them.
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I was later brought back to the hall, but I did not stay there. At night, the emir of Deir ez-Zor came and took me to Syria. He bought only me, without my sister.
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Interviewer: How was the transaction carried out?
Lamya Bashar: At first the salve girls were given as gifts. Each emir would take one, two, or three girls as gifts. They would then sell them among other [ISIS] members.
Interviewer: Were you present during the transaction? Was it like a market?
Lamya Bashar: There was a market at the shari’a court in Mosul. They put up pictures of the girls at the shari’a court in Mosul, and wrote their names and prices. Everybody would go in and look at the pictures, and would take the ones they liked.
[…]
Interviewer: You were held captive by ISIS for one year and eight months…
Lamya Bashar: Yes.
Interviewer: During this time, you were constantly raped…
Lamya Bashar: I was raped, bought and sold, and tortured.
[…]
I stayed in Mosul with the emir in charge of carbombs and explosive devices.
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He took me to the shop where they would rig cars and make explosive belts. He forced me to work with the ISIS members, making explosive devices, explosive belts, and carbombs.
[…]
My two friends and I escaped from Hawijain order to get to the safe zone in Kirkuk. We left at seven in the evening and walked until three or four in the morning. My friend stepped on an explosive device and it exploded.
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I lost both of my eyes and could not see anything. My face was burnt and I was screaming for help.
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Due to the pain in my eyes and my face, all I wanted was to die and find rest.
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