Ambassador Danon and Ms. Al Aliko at the UN
Ambassador Danon and Ms. Al Aliko at the UNIsrael Mission to UN

A Yazidi refugee from northern Iraq spoke at a special event in the United Nations on Thursday, a guest of the Israeli Mission to the UN.

Marwa Al Aliko, who was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists and sold into slavery before making her escape, addressed participants in the session hosted by the Israeli Mission to the UN highlighting the treatment and recovery of Yazidis who fled the clutches of the Islamic State.

The event was initiated by Noga Levy, the Israeli Mission’s UN Youth Delegate, and was hosted by Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon.

Al Aliko shared her harrowing tale of abuse, slavery, and salvation, and described the utter misery ISIS was inflicting on thousands of slave women, many of them members of minority groups.

“The ISIS fighters took us captive and put us in a small room,” recounted Al Aliko.

“We were fifty-two women. Every night the men would come to us and do as they pleased. After a few days one of the men bought me and my two sisters and took us to Syria.”

Recalling the cruelty of her ISIS captors, Al Aliko described her feelings of hopelessness, her thoughts of suicide, as well as her eventual escape.

“Ten days later they separated us and I was left alone. One of the ISIS leaders bought me and another girl and told us that we were now Muslims. I refused and told him that I would only listen to him if he reunited me with my sisters. He beat me many times and did terrible things to me. I thought about suicide. They continued to move us from place to place until one day I saw an opportunity and was able to escape.”

Danon remarked that Marwa’s story and the plight of minority groups suffering at the hands of ISIS resonated strongly with State of Israel, given the Jewish experience during the Holocaust and centuries of persecution.

“Marwa’s story is difficult to listen to, but it’s a story we need to hear,” said Ambassador Danon. “It’s the bravery of young people like Marwa, who are willing to speak out, and tell the world what is happening that can shake world’s indifference. As a representative of Israel, the state of the Jewish people, the stories of these refugees are particularly powerful.”