A Yazidi woman who endured years of enslavement under ISIS has recounted her harrowing journey of sexual abuse and torture at the hands of the group’s leaders, including its infamous head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before finally achieving a miraculous escape.
At just 15, Sipan Khalil’s life was upturned when ISIS forces overtook her Yazidi village of Kocho in Iraq in 2014—an event later deemed genocide by the United Nations.
Now 26, Sipan was captured and transported to Raqqa, Syria, the then-heart of the Islamic State’s caliphate, where she was sold into slavery.
For seven grueling years, she remained in the clutches of ISIS leaders, enduring a cycle of being sold, sexually violated, and coerced into multiple marriages.
While imprisoned, Sipan bore witness to the horrific abuse of young girls and suffered relentless torture, including rape, beatings, and starvation, at the hands of the terror group’s leaders.
Her ordeal led her to the home of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, where she was forced into servitude, tasked with household chores and caring for his children.
Sipan has outlined her ordeal in numerous interviews in recent years, most recently speaking to Rudaw last week where she described how Baghdadi committed ‘assaults’ against ‘very young girls’ as young as eight.
In a previous interview she recounted how Baghdadi attempted to rape her while one of his wives held her down after they discovered a secret notebook in which she had been documenting ISIS crimes.
Sipan Khalil, now 26, was a teenager when ISIS kidnapped her and killed her family
Sipan ended up in the residence of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured), where she was forced to work as a domestic slave
Sipan was officially freed and reunited with her family in 2021 (pictured) by Western Nineveh Operations Command
Sipan (pictured speaking to Rudaw last week) was held by ISIS leaders for seven years
They were only interrupted when a wave of coalition airstrikes started, she told Al-Monitor in 2022
The terror leader locked her in a basement and deprived her of food and sunlight and the couple ‘committed many assaults’ against her, she said.
Baghdadi tortured her with an electric shock baton while he interrogated her about the contents of her diary.
At one point, she was handed to ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani and stripped of her name.
Her captor forced her to call herself ‘Baqiyah’ (‘She who remains’). Her life became a cycle of hunger, abuse and humiliation.
Sipan recounted how she witnessed other Yazidi slaves in the house picked one at a time to be raped by Adnani and prayed she wouldn’t be next.
‘They came back like corpses. They never said anything,’ she said.
However, his abuse eventually reached her, and she described being violently raped by the militant.
Sipan was handed to ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani (pictured)
Sipan’s life became a cycle of hunger, abuse and humiliation
‘He tied my wrists to the feet of the couch, and started hitting me as he covered my mouth with his elbow. I fainted.
‘I didn’t realise anything until the sun rose. I started screaming. He kept me tied to the couch and raped me again and again before and after prayers.’
She said the abuse continued for months.
Adnani reportedly trafficked Yazidi girls as young as nine, selling them to places such as Turkey, Lebanon and the Gulf countries.
During her captivity, she was forced to witness extreme violence carried out by ISIS leaders.
Sipan told Al-Monitor how she had been taken by Adnani to watch the notorious execution of captured Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was burned alive in a cage in early 2015.
‘I had seen decapitated heads, corpses, but that day I entered a new world,’ she said of the horrific killing which shocked the world.
In 2017, Sipan was married off to Abu Azam Lubnani, a 22 year-old Lebanese ISIS fighter.
She said the militant would sit her down and proudly show her videos of him lining up prisoners and shooting them while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.’
Sipan described him as ‘an evil man, serving a state that was murdering innocent people’.
She described being taken by Adnani to watch the execution of captured Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh who was burned alive in a cage in 2015
‘I had seen decapitated heads, corpses, but that day I entered a new world,’ she said of witnessing the murder of Muath al-Kaseasbeh
US special forces move towards the compound of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a raid
At one point, Lubnani located her younger brother Majdal, who was being forcibly trained by the terror group, and brought him to their apartment for a brief visit, where she told her brother to tell their family she was dead.
Soon after, coalition warplanes struck the building where Sipan was living while Lubnani was away.
She survived the strike and during her lengthy recovery learned she was pregnant.
‘I wished to die after hearing this because I did not want to have a child who will bear the name of a terrorist father,’ she said.
After ISIS was defeated, Lubnani and a smuggler attempted to traffic Sipan to Lebanon in a journey that ended when a land mine exploded near their vehicle, badly injuring her captors.
Although she and her three-month-old baby boy were wounded, she managed to take hold of Lubnani’s gun, shooting him and the smuggler.
The compound housing ISIS emir Al-Qurayshi in northwest Syria prior to a raid executed by US forces, February 2, 2022
Sipan now lives in Berlin, where she studies and works with the Farida Organization, a human rights group founded by Yazidi survivors
She said she didn’t feel guilty, adding: ‘If I hadn’t killed them, I would never be free. It was my last chance’.
Sipan wandered the desert with her baby until finding a barn when she sought shelter. Her son tragically died of his injuries along the way.
A local Bedouin family found her and hid her for two years. After saving enough money to buy a phone, she began frantically looking for her family on social media.
Sipan located her mother, four surviving brothers and five sisters, who were shocked to learn she was still alive.
They had dug a symbolic grave for her, believing she had been killed by the 2017 airstrike on Lubnani’s home.
The Bedouins helped her return to Iraq, and she was officially freed and reunited with her family in 2021 by Western Nineveh Operations Command following a joint intelligence operation.
Sipan located her mother, four surviving brothers and five sisters, who were shocked to learn she was still alive
Sipan said her family was almost entirely wiped out during the genocide
Sipan, who also uses the surname ‘Ajo’, now lives in Berlin, where she studies and works with the Farida Organization, a human rights group founded by Yazidi survivors. She also cares for her surviving siblings.
Sipan said her family was almost entirely wiped out during the genocide.
‘They killed my father, they killed my brother, they killed many of my uncles, and they killed my cousins,’ she told Rudaw in an interview on Tuesday.
‘I take care of my brothers and sisters because my parents are gone,’ she added.
Despite rebuilding her life, Sipan said recent violence against Kurdish communities in Syria has brought back painful memories.
‘It reminded me of those days in 2014 when they attacked us Yazidis and killed all of us,’ she said. ‘I say this is a recurring genocide.’
