MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
It's been 10 years since the ISIS takeover of parts of Iraq and Syria and the militant group's campaign of genocide against the Yazidi religious minority. ISIS fighters kidnapped or killed thousands of Iraqi Yazidis, sexually enslaving most of the women. There are still thousands missing. And while a few women continue to be found, even that comes at a cost. NPR's Jane Arraf brings us this story from the Kurdistan region of Iraq of one young woman separated from and then reunited with her children.
BESMA: (Singing in non-English language).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: This might be a typical family lunch. A 4-year-old girl sings to herself.
MARWA: (Laughter). (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Her mom, a tiny woman with delicate features, laughs at her chatter. Her 6-year-old son dashes in and out. But this Yazidi mother, 14 years old when she was captured by ISIS, was reunited just a few hours ago with her children. All of this is new, and all of it remarkable.
MARWA: Marwa (ph).
ARRAF: She has a new name now. She's decided on Marwa. We're not using their original names for their safety.
MARWA: Now, Besma (ph).
ARRAF: The girl will be Besma, and the boy Marwan (ph). Marwa is afraid of being found, and the old names don't fit anymore.
MARWA: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Ten years ago, ISIS swept into Sinjar in northern Iraq. Marwa, along with thousands of other girls and women, was enslaved and raped by ISIS fighters.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Her son's father was Iraqi. When he was killed in battle, she was married off to another fighter. Their daughter was born in a notorious detention camp for ISIS families in Syria. And then the father escaped. Marwa could have told the camp guard she was Yazidi and would have been freed almost instantly. Instead, she stayed there for five years, enduring the danger, hunger, cold and heat, while pretending to be an Arab ISIS wife.
MARWA: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "I told them I was from Baghdad," she says. "I changed my name and changed my address."
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Vocalizing).
ARRAF: It was because of her children. The Yazidi community does not accept the children of ISIS fighters. Women who are freed and sent back to Iraq go back alone.
MARWA: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "I did everything for the sake of my children," she says.
Camp officials realized she was Yazidi during a census in February. Two weeks later, her son and daughter were placed in an orphanage. It's the fate of dozens of Yazidi children forcibly taken from their mothers, and it's where former U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith comes in.
PETER GALBRAITH: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: OK.
GALBRAITH: Here are the four copies, and now for you to sign.
ARRAF: Galbraith built contacts over decades with Kurdish officials on both sides of the border. He has now reunited 29 children with 19 Yazidi mothers, including Marwa.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
ARRAF: In video he took at the Syrian side of the border, Marwa is led into an office where the children wait. She grabs her daughter, folds her in her arms, covers her with kisses.
MARWA: (Non-English language spoken, crying).
ARRAF: "You are my life," she says.
The little girl keeps looking at the orphanage caregiver, who's also crying. Marwa grabs her son and quietly sobs.
(SOUNDBITE OF PONTOONS RATTLING)
ARRAF: Crossing the pontoon bridge over a narrow river, Galbraith points out the countries on either side.
GALBRAITH: So Iraq, Syria.
ARRAF: Their life ahead and their life before - but not the end of the road.
GALBRAITH: Iraq here, Syria there.
ARRAF: The children are at risk of being killed by angry relatives. The family is headed for a safe house and then will likely be resettled in a Western country. In some conservative cultures of the Middle East, women are often blamed for being raped and sometimes even killed by their families. Yazidi religious leaders welcome back survivors of enslavement. But for the traumatized community, accepting the children was a step too far.
GALBRAITH: Many of these young women lost their parents. They lost their families. So their children are all they have. These young women deserve all the support that we can provide for them. And most of all, they deserve to have their children.
ARRAF: After lunch, security guards stand by to take the family to safety. It's impossible to imagine what Marwa has gone through - the moments of terror and horror turning into 10 years.
MARWA: (Through interpreter) We want to forget the past and build a new life - a good life - in peace, with our children. But it is not easy to forget.
GALBRAITH: Oh, wait a minute. OK, give me five. Oh.
(SOUNDBITE OF HANDS SLAPPING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah.
GALBRAITH: Give me five.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Laughter).
GALBRAITH: Give me five. One more.
ARRAF: Outside, Galbraith says his goodbyes to the children, and he tries to reassure the mother.
GALBRAITH: You're going to have a great future, and there are better days ahead. You're strong - a very strong, brave person.
ARRAF: Surrounded by the security detail, the young woman in sneakers looks like a child. She listens to Galbraith with a furrowed brow. She will likely never see the rest of her family again, but she now has what she so desperately wanted - her children back.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
(SOUNDBITE OF HWASA SONG, "ORBIT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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