Fawzia Sido, a 21-year-old Yazidi woman, has disclosed disturbing details of her traumatic ordeal while in the custody of ISIS. Yazidi survivor Fawzia Amin Sido has retold the horrific atrocities she faced while held captive by ISIS in Gaza, two weeks after being saved by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Sido described how, when she was nine years old, she was taken with her siblings and compelled to walk from Sinjar to Tal Afar, Iraq in 2014.
Fawzia Amin Sido, a Yazidi woman from #Iraq, was rescued from #Gaza after being kidnapped by ISIS at age 11 in 2014
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) October 14, 2024
Sold into sex slavery, she was forced to marry a Palestinian ISIS fighter & taken to Gaza in 2020
Fawzia, now 21, escaped after posting a TikTok plea for help.… pic.twitter.com/XsN0ydjESy
Forced To Eat Babies
“We were so hungry, we just ate,” Fawzia Sido said during an interview with The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper. Sido also mentioned that they were provided with a meal of rice and meat following several days without food. "They cooked rice and meat for us, and we ate despite the strange taste because we were so hungry. Afterwards, we all felt sick. Then, the IS fighters revealed their horrific act," Sido said.
The fighters kept it a secret that the meat was from babies until after they had finished eating.
Yazidi People Harrassed
Sido was just one of the many Yazidi women and children who were abducted by ISIS. A lot of them were traded into enslavement and compelled to endure brutal living conditions. After enduring years of abuse and mistreatment, she was finally released from captivity.
How Was Fawzia Sido Rescued?
Israel, the US, and Iraq carried out a covert operation to free her from Gaza. Reuters reported that the rescue operation required strong collaboration between Israel's military and the US Embassy. It was reported that the person who had captured Sido was killed during the Gaza conflict, which enabled her to get away.
After being sent to Kerem Shalom for entry into Israel, she proceeded to Jordan and eventually met up with her family in Iraq. Zemfira Dlovani, Sido's attorney, informed The Sun that despite being out of danger, the lasting impact of her ten years of captivity still weighs heavily on her.
The memories of her experiences are limited by the psychological wounds caused by ISIS. Following the 2014 Yazidi genocide, over 3,500 Yazidis have been saved, however, approximately 2,600 remain unaccounted for as efforts continue to find and rescue them.