Report: Aunt of 10-Year-Old ISIS Slave Escapes, Says Girl Was Pregnant

Report: Aunt of 10-Year-Old ISIS Slave Escapes, Says Girl Was Pregnant
Members of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stand near a pick up truck near Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria Feb. 11, 2019. (Rodi Said/Reuters)
Jack Phillips
2/24/2019
Updated:
2/24/2019

The aunt of a girl who was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists in Iraq in 2014 has spoken out after escaping captivity herself.

Marwa Khedr was just 10 years old when she was taken by ISIS in Sinjar before being taken to Raqqa, which used to be the capital of the so-called terrorist group’s “caliphate” before it was re-taken by security forces.

The girl’s aunt, Mahdya, said over the weekend that she had seen Marwa months later, and she was pregnant despite her young age, reported the Daily Mail, in a “grotesque sign of the barbarism inflicted” by the group. It’s not clear where Marwa, who is Yazidi, was taken after that.

“There are a lot of girls like her,” Ziad Avdal, a former teacher who tries to help Yazidis escaping ISIS, told the publication. “It is not just terrible that she is pregnant,” he said, adding that the girls may have been raped hundreds of times.

Mahdya said she fled Baghuz, the final remaining ISIS stronghold with her daughters, after she was kidnapped during ISIS’s heyday. Over the years, Mahdya said, she was frequently sold, raped, forced to marry, and her daughters were also raped.

“I don’t know how many times I was sold,” she said. “One man only had me for three days, then sold me again. They also held me underground for two months. It was so dark I could not tell night and day.”

Islamic state members walk in the last besieged neighborhood in the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria on Feb.18, 2019. (Rodi Said/REUTERS/File Photo)
Islamic state members walk in the last besieged neighborhood in the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria on Feb.18, 2019. (Rodi Said/REUTERS/File Photo)

Her daughters were also beaten with cables by ISIS brides, the report said, and older men threatened to rape them, she added.

At one point, she saw the girl, Mahdya, being held by a white Westerner who joined ISIS after spending years in prison.

“He was buying girls, washing them, dressing them in beautiful clothes and then selling them,” she told the publication.

For five years, she added, she was forced to work as a cleaner for ISIS families. She was beaten frequently, showing the Mail reporter a fresh scar on her face.

“I had to do everything for the women,” Mahdya said of the ISIS wives. “All the women, even their children, would beat us,” she added.

She didn’t offer any more details about her missing niece.

ISIS Bride Update

The mother of Shamima Begum, who had married three ISIS jihadis, told The Sun on Feb. 24 that she fears that her grandson will be “indoctrinated” by her, and now she wants the child taken away and brought to the United Kingdom.
Shamima Begum being interviewed by Sky News in northern Syria on Feb. 17, 2019. (Reuters)
Shamima Begum being interviewed by Sky News in northern Syria on Feb. 17, 2019. (Reuters)

“Her mum doesn’t even recognize her,” family lawyer Tansime Akunjee said, adding, “They’re eager to take the baby and bring him up as her situation is sorted.”

“Shamima is highly damaged and the family don’t want the newborn brought up by her in that state of mind,” he said.

Begum ran away to join ISIS at the age of 15, but she turned up at a refugee camp in Syria, asking to be allowed back into the UK.

According to reports, she named her son Jerrah, which means “able fighter” or “one who wounds” in Arabic.

This undated photo issued by the Metropolitan Police shows Shamima Begum. A pregnant British teenager who ran away from Britain to join ISIS terrorists in Syria four years ago. She said on Feb. 14, 2018, she wants to come back to London, UK, with her child. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
This undated photo issued by the Metropolitan Police shows Shamima Begum. A pregnant British teenager who ran away from Britain to join ISIS terrorists in Syria four years ago. She said on Feb. 14, 2018, she wants to come back to London, UK, with her child. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
Historian and author Tom Holland tweeted: “If she’d wanted to signal that she was returning to Britain in peace, she might have considered naming her baby after someone other than Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah.”

“[He was] a general from the early days of the Arab conquests chiefly famed for beating the [expletive] out of infidels.”

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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