Shvan* was just 13 years old when he and his family were captured by IS in his hometown of Sinjar.
They were among thousands of Yazidis who were systematically either killed or captured and enslaved when IS overran the northern Iraqi town on August 2014 in its quest to set up a theocratic caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Shvan says he never knew of the pain and torture he was to experience over the next five years, and while he lives to tell his story, he says the suffering will never escape him.
“During those five years they treated me unkindly by beating me a lot, their treatment was inhumane, and to them, we were their slaves,” he told SBS Kurdish.
Yazidis were considered infidels by IS who allowed their fighters to take women and girls as sex slaves and boys as fighters.
In the chaos of the IS advance, Shvan, together with his parents, brother and four sisters fled to the mountains, but they were captured, brought back and separated.
“They separated men from women and children,” he said.
Yezidis trapped in the Sinjar mountains as they tried to escape from IS, are rescued by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and YPG August 09, 2014. Source: Getty
“My father was separated from myself, my mother and my four sisters, but my brother wasn’t captured by IS - he stayed on the mountain.”
Shvan, together with his mother and sisters were taken to Tal Afar, 50 kilometres east of Sinjar, before being moved on further east to Mosul where they remained for a month.
“IS treated me, my mother, and my sisters very harshly. They would beat us and they would force people to go with them,” he says.
“They treated me unkindly by beating me a lot, their treatment was inhumane, and to them, we were their slaves. There was a lot of brainwashing on a daily basis like military and religious education.”
Then he says he was separated from his mother and sisters to do “military training”.
Initially, Shvan says he was placed with other Yazidi children, but they were later separated. Source: Supplied
Initially, he was placed with other Yazidi children, but they, he says, they were separated.
“They took us to places like Suluk on the Turkish border, Raqqa, Tabqah, Aleppo, Homs, Bukamal, Al Mayadin and east of the Euphrates,” he explained.
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Exclusive: Freed Yazidi boy reveals IS hell
SBS Kurdish
06/07/201910:24
“I was afraid a lot. I tried many times to escape but I didn’t get the opportunity.”
On March 23rd this year, hundreds of IS fighters surrendered to US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Baghouz, the group’s final stronghold along the Euphrates river in eastern Syria by the Iraqi border.
Shvan was among them where he says he was imprisoned at Shadadi prison for 50 days.
“After the fall of IS in Baghouz, they (IS) surrendered themselves to the SDF - I was among them. We were held in al-Shadadi prison where all IS captives are kept. They were all IS and I was kept with them too.
Children believed to be from the Yazidi community, who were captured by IS fighters, are evacuated from the IS' embattled holdout of Baghouz, March 6, 2019. Source: Getty
"I told the guards at the door that I was Yazidi but they ignored me. Then a Yazidi leader came and I told him I am Yazidi and I am a captive of ISIS. I was released and taken to the Yazidi House.”
From Yazidi House - a safehouse for Yazidi women and children rescued from IS - he then went to a refugee camp in Dohuk.
Shvan is the only immediate family member left behind. His father remains missing.
“I had learnt my mother’s phone number off by heart and I telephoned her and she told me that she’s in Australia.
Shvan seen pictured in Lalish, after being taken to Yazidi House after his rescue from Baghouz. Source: Supplied
He’s currently waiting to be reunited with his mother, sisters and brother.
The mother's story
“When I heard my son was freed I was very happy that I wanted to fly from happiness. He was freed from the hands of those infidels,” Shvan’s mother told SBS Kurdish from New South Wales.
She explained that her mental situation was very bad when her son was “in their hands”.
“But now I am very happy and I feel much better,” she said.
However, the heartbroken woman says the suffering has never really escaped her as her husband still remains missing.
Shvan's mother is waiting to be reunited with her son. Source: Supplied
"I pray to God every day how my son came back, he (my husband) will come back soon too,” she said.
Shvan’s mother and his sisters were captured and held for 10 months before spending time in refugee camps.
However, the eldest daughter was captured for a total of three years.
“Their treatment was very bad; I don’t think I could find a word to describe their treatment towards us,” his mother recalled.
“There were beatings, being hungry, fear and taking your children away from you by force.”
In order to survive, she felt she had to gain her captors’ trust.
“They (IS) would say the Kurds and Yazidis are infidels and I would have to agree with them."
She feared her youngest daughter aged ten would be sold off by IS, so, as much as it pained her, she felt her only hope was to side with them.
Thousands of Yazidi Kurdish women and girls were sold into sexual slavery and forced to marry IS militants, according to Human Rights organizations. Source: AAP
Escape from IS
Then, she found a way to escape.
“One day we were left home by ourselves and I knew how to unlock the door, we escaped and surrendered to an Arab family in Raqqa,” Shvan’s mother said.
However, they were still not free. There was a price to pay, literally - the Arab family sold them to her relatives for $18,000.
“My older daughter remained with IS in Mosul. When initially we were separated in Tal Afar they took her to Mosul. Three years later, when IS was defeated in Mosul she was freed,” she said.
With the daughters now reunited, they arrived in Australia in June 2018 under a refugee resettlement program.
“I also have my sister here with me. She came here to help me because I was not well because of the stress of the disappearance of my son and husband, and what we went through.”
The family was captured along with thousands of other Yazidis - a religious-minority - when IS attacked their hometown of Sinjar, Iraq, in 2014 Source: SBS
Her sister’s family is still back in Kurdistan, also waiting to be accepted to come to Australia.
Only Shvan remains in Dohuk, living in a refugee camp with his uncle and waiting for a visa to be reunited with his mother and siblings in Australia. SBS understands the Australian government is considering his visa application.
“I wish the government would hurry up processing my son’s application to come to Australia.
"I miss him a lot and I cannot wait to see him. I just want to hug him.”
* SBS Kurdish has chosen to protect the identity of the family
