The Yazidi people should know their heroes

The Canadian website CBC published an article about a Yazidi man who lives near the city of Dohuk in the Kurdistan region, secretly working to rescue Yazidi women abducted by ISIS.

Abdullah Shuraim, a 46-year-old man, is still known to many as a beekeeper from Sinjar.

In the summer of 2014, when ISIL terrorists attacked Abdullah Shuraimi's village, they captured 56 of his relatives as slaves. Then the man decided, at all costs, to save his loved ones. The first person he was able to buy out was his daughter, it was at the end of 2014. As soon as the news spread, people started coming to him asking for help. In a short time, Abdullah formed a network of informant agents. They were organized agencies.

As many of the women were abducted in the Syrian city of Raqqa, which was an ISIS stronghold. Abdullah opened a bakery there and turned his bread-carrying workers into informants. These people were the eyes and ears of the rescue net. He also hired a woman who knocked on the doors of houses to sell children's clothing, because her advantage to communicate with the women of the city allowed her to know whether there was a Yazidi girl in the house who was a slave, whether Yazidi girls were forcibly held in the house or not.

According to Abdullah, this woman played the most important role, as she could enter the houses of criminals without unnecessary suspicion.

The man still keeps his original notebook, which has drawings associated with many plans. For the "rescue chain", it was positive that ISIL forces all women to cover their faces, because after saving a 16-year-old girl, it is possible to fabricate an identity for her and change her age even to 70 years, because ISIL did not remove the veil from the women's faces.

Many of the Yazidi girls are still believed to be enslaved by ISIS terrorists and their families who fled in the last days of fighting in Syria, particularly to the city of Idlib, where many armed groups are still fighting against the Syrian regime.

After these years, many of those who were abducted as children may no longer remember their real identity, and some are sent to schools for brainwashing and training to become fighters or suicide bombers for ISIS.

Abdullah pointed out that the biggest problems in finding abducted Yazidi women are related to the lack of money to be paid as ransom to the smugglers. In the first phase of Abdullah's activities, the money came from private donations, and in another period, the office in Kurdistan paid compensation to families who had to pay a ransom to return one of their children from slavery. But now there are no more funds.

"The problem is that the international community does not care about us, and so far the Iraqi government has not helped us or helped the missing Yazidi women. Of my 56 relatives, I managed to redeem 40 people, 16 are still missing. Our activities are still ongoing, " Abdullah said.

In total, Abdullah and his staff managed to help 399 Yazidis, but they claim that the mission is not yet complete. There are still three thousand women and children whose fate is not known to this day.

Unfortunately, one of the main links in the rescue chain, a woman who posed as a child clothing salesman, was arrested and executed by ISIS.

According to the Kurdistan Regional government, ISIS has abducted about 6,000 women and children, sold them as part of the slave trade, or given them to fighters as gifts and rewards. During the battle for the liberation of Sinjar, the city suffered great damage, and only a few of its residents were able to return.

We call on International human rights organizations, the United Nations, and all governmental and non-governmental humanitarian organizations to help the Yazidis who are still being held captive and enslaved by ISIL.