Dalal Khario


Dalal Khario is a Yazidi woman from northern Iraq who fled to Germany after escaping from ISIS.
On August 3, 2014, ISIS fighters conquered her village. Khario, then 17 years old, was abducted and spent nine months in captivity. She was forced to marry nine different men and was raped repeatedly. Khario was one of many young women abducted by ISIS; an estimated 4,000 women and children are still being held hostage. Khario's hometown of Hardan has been destroyed, and the bodies of 500 residents have been found in mass graves. Her family has been torn apart: her mother was taken to Syria, her younger sister is missing, and her brother is dead.
Khario's memoir, I Remain a Daughter of the Light, was published in 2016 under the pseudonym "Shirin." In February 2017, she received the Women's Rights Award at the 9th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. She said later that the experience was bittersweet because her mother and sister could not be there with her.