In August 2014, Farida Khalaf was just a normal Yazidi girl, living in a village high in the mountains of northern Iraq. Then her village was attacked and swiftly taken by ISIS fighters, and her whole world changed. The jihadists murdered the men and the boys of her village, including her father and brothers, before taking Farida prisoner along with the rest of the women. This is the story of what happened to Farida after she was captured: the beatings, the rapes, the markets where ISIS sold their female prisoners like cattle, and Farida's realisation that the more difficult and resistant she became, the harder it was for her captors to continue their atrocities against her. So she struggled, she bit, she kicked, she accused her captors of going against their religion, and then, one day, the door to her room was left unlocked. She took her chance along with 5 other women, and set out across the Syrian desert...
'This powerful testimoney is ... as gripping as it is appalling' Guardian
'Farida's story needs to be told' The Times
'Truly a triumph of the human spirit over terror' Irish Times
'How much can a single person endure? Traumatised, uprooted, abused - Farida continues to deal with the consequences of ISIS. Nevertheless, this memoir is full of hope. She is a very strong individual, she has the heart of a lioness. An amazing story that encourages us never to keep quiet or to give in' Frank Heinrich, German Parliamentary Speaker on Human Rights
Author
About Farida Khalaf, Andrea C. Hoffmann
Farida Khalaf and her brothers were brought up in the Yazidi community in Kocho, Iraq. She was 19 years old when ISIS attacked her village, killed the men, captured the women and sold them into slavery. After four months, Farida managed to escape against all odds. She was reunited with her mother and her brothers in an Iraqi refugee camp and was granted asylum in Germany in 2015.
