INTERNEWSTIMES.COM – After a decade of unimaginable hardship, a Yazidi woman kidnapped by ISIS as a child has finally returned to her family in Iraq. Fawzia Amin Sido, now 21, was abducted along with thousands of other Yazidi women from northern Iraq in 2014. She endured years of abuse at the hands of a Palestinian ISIS militant she was forced to marry, before being moved to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Sido’s journey back to freedom began in late 2023 when she escaped her captor’s family after his death in an Israeli airstrike. She sought refuge near Israeli forces and spent a month waiting for permission to leave Gaza.
On Wednesday, Sido was finally reunited with her mother and surviving family members in Sinjar, northwest Iraq. The emotional reunion was captured on video by Steve Maman, a Jewish Canadian businessman who has dedicated himself to helping Yazidis escape ISIS captivity.
“I made a promise to Fawzia that I would bring her back home to her mother,” Maman wrote on social media. “To her it seemed surreal and impossible, but not to me. My only enemy was time.”
The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that the operation to bring Sido home was led by the defense ministry’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories in collaboration with the US Embassy in Israel. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry acknowledged the role of the U.S. embassies in Baghdad and Amman, as well as Jordanian authorities, in Sido’s release.
Sido’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of hope. It also highlights the ongoing efforts to bring justice and closure to the victims of ISIS atrocities. (Red)
