SEX SLAVE torture
Schoolgirl bravely reveals how she was kidnapped by ISIS at 14 and raped every day for SIX months
Ekhlas, now 16, tells how her father was shot in front of her and describes her pain as 'like 100 deaths'
A SCHOOLGIRL has bravely recalled the horror of being kidnapped by ISIS fanatics and raped daily for six months.
Ekhlas was just 14 when Islamic State fighters swept through her village in northern Iraq on August 3, 2014 as they targeted the local Yazidi community, an ethnic Kurdish group and one of the country's oldest minorities.
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ISIS falsely accused the Yazidis of being devil worshippers and thousands of people were expelled from their homes.
Many men were shot dead while women and children were taken as hostages and held as sex slaves.
“My life was beautiful but two hours changed my life," Ekhlas, now 16, exclusively told the BBC's show.
“They came with their black flag. They killed our men and raped our girls.
“They would hit me and I would want to cry. But my smile was my weapon.”
Ekhlas and her family had tried to escape up nearby Mount Sinjar where up to 50,000 Yazidis sought a last refuge from the massacre but they couldn’t run fast enough.
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“They killed my father in front of my own eyes. I saw his blood on their hands,” she said.
Ekhlas was then kidnapped, taken from her mother and locked in a prison.
“All I heard was screaming and crying, everyone was starving, they weren’t feeding anyone,” she said.
“I saw a man who was over 40 take a 10-year-old girl. The girl was screaming.
"I’ll never forget those screams, screaming for mum, ‘mama, mama’ but we could do nothing.”
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Ekhlas was kept as a sex slave for six months.
Recalling her abuser, she said: “He had picked me out of 150 girls by drawing lots.
“He was so ugly, like a beast, with his long hair. He smelt so bad.
“I was so frightened I couldn’t look at him.
“Every day for six months he raped me. I tried to kill myself.
“How am I telling you this without crying? I tell you I ran out of tears.”
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Miraculously, Ekhlas managed to escape while her abuser was out fighting and found her way to a refugee camp.
There, she met Jacqueline Isaac, an American lawyer.
Jacqueline told BBC's show: “When I first met her, her head was down, all of their heads were down. There was no eye contact in the beginning.”
Three months later, Ekhlas was resettled by the German government.
She now lives in a psychiatric hospital with 17 other survivors where she is receiving education and therapy.
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She said: “You probably think I am as strong as a rock but I want you to know I am wounded inside.
“I have my pain and it’s like a 100 deaths.”
Ekhlas hopes to one day become a lawyer. It is unclear if she has been reunited with her mother.
It’s estimated that up to 4,000 Yazidi children, women and men still remain in ISIS captivity.
Earlier this month we revealed the harrowing moment a starving and injured boy was finally rescued after hiding in a basement for 20 days as the battle for Mosul raged on.
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