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Farida Khalaf

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Farida Khalaf
Borncirca 1995
Kocho, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Pen nameFarida Khalaf
OccupationAuthor
LanguageKurdish, Arabic, German, English
NationalityKurdish
Citizenship Germany (asylum)
Period2016–present
GenreMemoir, Non-fiction
SubjectISIS, Yazidis, Slavery
Years active2016–present
Notable worksThe Girl Who Beat ISIS: My Story

Farida Khalaf (born circa 1995) is the pen name[1] of a Yazidi woman who was abducted by ISIS as teenager in 2014 and sold into slavery as part of the Yazidi genocide. ISIS moved through northwestern Iraq and were the perpetrators of a genocide against 400,000 Yazidis, kidnapping approximately 7,000 Yazidi women and girls and forcing them to convert to Islam and were used for sexual slavery and sex trafficking. Yazidi men were murdered and Yazidi boys were enslaved to convert and become ISIS soldiers. [2]Khalaf escaped to a refugee camp, and in 2016 published a book about her experience, The Girl Who Beat ISIS: My Story by Farida Khalaf and Andrea C. Hoffman.[3] The U.S. version is titled: The Girl Who Escaped ISIS This Is My Story. The book co-authored by German writer Andrea C. Hoffmann, and translated to English by Jamie Bulloch.[4][5][6][7][8]

Khalaf grew up in the village of Kocho in the mountains of Iraq. In 2014, when she was 18, ISIS invaded her village. The jihadists murdered all the men and boys of age in the village, including her father and eldest brother. Single women and girls, including Farida and her friend Evin, were forced onto a bus at gunpoint and brought to Raqqa, where they were sold into sexual slavery.[5] She was once beaten so badly by her captors that she lost sight in one eye, and could not walk for two months.[9] The young women managed to escape to a refugee camp in northern Iraq, and Khalaf was reunited with surviving family members.

Khalaf subsequently moved to Germany, where she was granted asylum in 2015 and hoped to continue her studies to become a mathematics teacher. Her book, The Girl Who Beat ISIS: My Story .[3], was published in 2016 to positive reviews. [10]

Khalaf is the current president and co-founder of the Farida Global Organization, which was founded in 2019 [11] and is an officially registered NGO non-profit organization in Germany. Farida Global was founded and is managed by survivors of the Yazidi genocide and conflict-related sexual violence. [12]

Farida Global provides support to survivors and their communities through a participatory, survivor-centered approach that integrates cultural sensitivity and psychosocial principles.[12] The organization focuses their efforts to find missing Yazidi women and girls by working with authorities to provide survivor testimonies and evidence that will bring ISIS justice as well as advocates and supports the Yazidi genocide survivors to recover and reintegrate into whatever society they have escaped to as refugees.[11] To raise awareness, Farida Global created a traveling a photography exhibition "The Women Who Beat Isis" that has exhibited in Dubar Court at the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office with the Duchess of Edinburgh in attendance,[12] the United Nations Headquarters[13] and The Hague[14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Girl Who Beat Isis by Farida Khalaf".
  2. ^ "Ten Years On, It Is Essential to Recognize the Yazidi Genocide Is Not Fully Over". Middle East Forum. 2024-11-20. Archived from the original on 2025-05-12. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  3. ^ a b Aspden, Rachel (2016-07-01). "The Girl Who Beat Isis: My Story by Farida Khalaf and Andrea C Hoffmann – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  4. ^ Khalaf, Farida (2016). Hoffmann, Andrea C. (ed.). The Girl Who Beat ISIS. Translated by Bulloch, Jamie. Random House. ISBN 9781910931011.
  5. ^ a b Aspden, Rachel (July 1, 2016). "The Girl Who Beat Isis: My Story by Farida Khalaf and Andrea C Hoffmann – review". The Guardian.
  6. ^ MacGabhann, Frank (October 29, 2016). "The Girl Who Beat Isis by Farida Khalaf". The Irish Times.
  7. ^ Philp, Catherine (July 16, 2016). "The Girl Who Beat Isis: My Story by Farida Khalaf". The Times.
  8. ^ Sheridan, Colette (January 28, 2017). "Book review: The Girl Who Beat Isis". The Irish Examiner.
  9. ^ Ayed, Nahlah (January 9, 2017). "'They raped us; they killed our men': Psychologist helps Yazidi women recover from trauma of ISIS captivity". CBC News.
  10. ^ Aspden, Rachel (2016-07-01). "The Girl Who Beat Isis: My Story by Farida Khalaf and Andrea C Hoffmann – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  11. ^ a b "The European Endowment for Democracy (EED) | Farida Global Organisation". democracyendowment.eu. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  12. ^ a b c "The Duchess of Edinburgh attends "The Women Who Beat ISIS" travelling photo exhibition". www.royal.uk. 2024-11-27. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  13. ^ Amt, Auswärtiges. "Statement on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition The Women Who Beat ISIS, 21 October 2024". Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  14. ^ "International Human Rights Day: ICMP Highlights Experience of Yazidi Families of the Missing – International Commission on Missing Persons". Retrieved 2025-07-21.
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