Dalal Khario (born circa 1997) is a

Yazidi Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in ...

woman from northern

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

who fled to Germany after escaping from

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

. On August 3, 2014,

fighters conquered

Sinjar Sinjar (; , ) is a town in the Sinjar District of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. It is located about five kilometers south of the Sinjar Mountains. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 88,023, and is predominantly Yazidi. History ...

and its surrounding villages around the

Sinjar Mountains The Sinjar Mountains (, , ), are a mountain range that runs east to west, rising above the surrounding alluvial steppe plains in northwestern Iraq to an elevation of . The highest segment of these mountains, about long, lies in the Nineveh Gov ...

including Khario's native village of Hardan. Khario, then 17 years old, was abducted and spent nine months in captivity. She was forced to marry nine different men and was raped repeatedly. Khario was one of many young Yazidi women abducted by ISIS; an estimated 4,000 women and children are still being held hostage. Khario's hometown of Hardan has been destroyed, and the bodies of 500 residents have been found in mass graves. Her family has been torn apart: her mother was taken by ISIS militants to

Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, her younger sister is still missing, and her brother is dead. Khario's memoir, ''I Remain a Daughter of the Light'' (German: ''Ich bleibe eine Tocher des Lichts''), was published in 2016 under the pseudonym "Shirin." In February 2017, she received the Women's Rights Award at the 9th annual

Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy is an annual human rights summit sponsored by a coalition of 20 non-governmental organizations. Each year, on the eve of the United Nations Human Rights Council's main annual session, activists from a ...

. She said later that the experience was bittersweet because her mother and sister could not be there with her.

References

Living people 1990s births 21st-century Iraqi women writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers German human rights activists German Yazidis Iraqi emigrants to Germany Iraqi human rights activists Iraqi refugees Iraqi Yazidis Pseudonymous women writers Refugees in Germany Women human rights activists Yazidi women Year of birth uncertain {{iraq-writer-stub

See also

References