A former Islamic State sex slave rescued in a rare collaboration amid diplomatic tensions between Israel and Iraq.
A Yazidi woman once enslaved by the Islamic State (ISIS) was successfully rescued from Gaza and reunited with her family in Iraq. The woman, 21-year-old Fawzia Amin Saydo, had been living under harrowing conditions, trapped in the Palestinian enclave since 2020. Her rescue represents a beacon of hope, not just for her but for countless others still suffering in the shadows of war and extremism.
Fawzia’s story is one of unimaginable endurance. Abducted by ISIS from her hometown of Sinjar in 2014, when she was just 10 years old, she was subjected to brutal treatment and forced into slavery. Her journey took her across war-torn territories and into the hands of a Palestinian ISIS fighter in Syria, who held her captive and fathered two children with her. Despite years of abuse, her plight remained mostly hidden from the world until the devastating Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2024 thrust her circumstances into a global spotlight.
What makes this rescue even more astonishing is the rare diplomatic ballet that made it possible. Iraq and Israel, long-standing adversaries, played silent partners in a mission that stretched the limits of geopolitical cooperation. The State Department’s involvement added a further layer of complexity. Humanitarian activists worked tirelessly behind the scenes, lobbying Iraqi, Israeli, and U.S. officials to coordinate Fawzia’s escape.
For months, she had been living in fear, trapped between a hostile Palestinian family in Gaza and the chilling knowledge that her children would likely never be accepted back into the Yazidi faith due to their parentage—an unbearable dilemma. But following Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, the urgency of her situation escalated, and her rescuers seized the moment.
The intricacies of her extraction read like something out of a spy thriller. Humanitarian groups, including the Montreal-based Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq, spearheaded efforts to move her from her dangerous living situation to a hidden location, just kilometers from the Israeli military. The clock was ticking. Every delay brought fresh dangers, and the multi-nation coordination faced countless setbacks.
It took the intervention of U.S., Israeli, Jordanian, and Iraqi officials to bring Fawzia to safety. On October 1, she was evacuated across the Kerm Shalom crossing in a United Nations ambulance. She was then quietly moved through Jordan before arriving in Iraq, where an emotional reunion with her long-lost family awaited her.
While the successful mission is a victory for Fawzia and her family, it leaves behind a haunting question: what about her two children? Born from years of violence and exploitation, they remain with their father’s family in Gaza. Fawzia’s escape required her to make an impossible decision—to leave her children behind. As humanitarian workers who aided in her rescue noted, this agonizing choice was the only way for her to find a sliver of freedom and reconnect with her family in Iraq.
The trauma she endured has not ended with her physical rescue. Fawzia, like so many other Yazidi women who survived the horrors of ISIS captivity, faces an uncertain future. Her community’s rigid beliefs about children born of rape complicate her reintegration. Will she ever be able to return to her home in Sinjar fully? Will she be able to heal from the years of abuse while living apart from her children?
Fawzia’s case is emblematic of the deep scars ISIS left on the Yazidi community. Thousands of Yazidis are still missing—trapped in similar circumstances in conflict zones across the Middle East. Her story is both a reminder of the resilience of survivors and a reflection of the slow and often inadequate international response to their plight.
For those who helped orchestrate her rescue, like Steve Maman, the mission’s success is bittersweet. While a life was saved, the wider tragedy continues. Many Yazidis remain in captivity, scattered across the remnants of ISIS’s former territories or hiding in plain sight in places like Gaza. Their rescue efforts provide some hope, but the reality remains grim for the thousands still missing.
Fawzia’s rescue is a rare victory in an otherwise bleak landscape for Yazidi survivors. Yet, it underscores the lengths to which humanitarian workers, governments, and activists must go to ensure even a single person’s freedom. And it leaves the world with a provocative question: how many more lives are waiting to be saved?
