Yazidi girl held in ISIS captivity for 4 years reunites with father

Prominent Yazidi human rights activist, Nadia Murad, tweeted a photo of a Yazidi father reunited with his daughter after she was in ISIS captivity for four years.

In the photo, the father is seen sobbing while holding his daughter’s hand. The daughter’s age was not specified, but she seemed to be a minor.

On her official Twitter account, Murad said that the Yazidi man had lost all of his family members in an ISIS attack in 2014 in Iraq. She added that he had been waiting to see his daughter since 2014, but she had been kidnapped.

The girl was brought back by ISIS in Syria after four years of captivity, according to Murad.

Rooted in Zoroastrianism, the Yazidis adhere to a faith that emerged in Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago but that has over time integrated elements of Islam and Christianity.
Of the world’s 1.5 million Yazidis, about 550,000 lived in Iraqi Kurdistan but some 400,000 have been displaced by fighting due to ISIS.

Around 1,500 have been killed and more than 3,000 are believed to remain in captivity, the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) and the UN rights office said in an August report.

In areas controlled by ISIS, thousands of women and girls from the Yazidi minority were used as sex slaves and suffered horrific abuse, including rape, abduction, slavery and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

-With AFP