Yazidi women are still enslaved in ISIS detention camps, a new Sky News documentary has revealed.
In 10 Years of Darkness: ISIS & The Yazidis, Sky News’s special correspondent Alex Crawford delivers an in-depth portrait of a community that has faced unimaginable violence.
The documentary chronicles the systematic slaughter of the Yazidi people in Sinjar in 2014, the mass abductions of women and children, and the ensuing humanitarian crisis that still reverberates today, with many Yazidi women still enslaved 10 years on.
Through original, on-the-ground eye-witness footage of rescue operations in detention camps and moving family reunions, Crawford brings into sharp focus the Yazidi community’s relentless search for the missing and their ongoing fight for justice.
The documentary features the story of Kovan, a young Yazidi from northern Iraq whose life was overturned when she was abducted by ISIS militants at the age of 14, and Farida Khalaf, a Yazidi author and human rights activist whose village, Kocho in northern Iraq, was attacked by ISIS.
Ms Khalaf’s memoir, The Girl Who Beat ISIS, recounts her experiences and she has become an international advocate, meeting with world leaders and testifying on issues of justice and human rights and playing an active role in campaigns to bring ISIS perpetrators to account.
Other contributors to the documentary include Dr Shiraz Maher, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Dr Jan Kizilhan, a German-Kurdish trauma expert and professor specialising in the treatment of survivors of war and genocide, who has worked extensively with Yazidi women and children subjected to atrocities by ISIS.
The documentary features raw footage from Crawford’s extensive reporting over the course of a decade from the Middle East, particularly in Syria, giving audiences a first-hand look into war zones and how people who are subjected to terror piece together recovery.
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Alex Crawford, special correspondent for Sky News, said: “I have reported on the horrors faced by the Yazidis for over a decade, telling the harrowing stories of the women and children taken as slaves, raped by ISIS.
“The alarming truth – which we explore in this film – is that thousands of them are still being held captive and this brutality continues.”
David Rhodes, executive chairman of Sky News, said: “This film has been made possible by our continued investment in on the ground reporting that delivers deep analysis and insight from around the world.
“Alex’s eyewitness accounts over an extensive period show audiences the full story, explaining the context and history and detailing new, horrifying revelations that viewers wouldn’t otherwise know about.”
10 Years of Darkness: Isis & The Yazidis will be available on Sky News platforms on 2 May
