Farida Khalaf
Författare till The Girl Who Escaped ISIS: This Is My Story
Om författaren
Farida Khalaf is from the Yazidi community of the small village of Kocho in northern Iraq. After making a daring escape from captivity, she reunited with her mother and brothers in an Iraqi refugee camp and was granted asylum in Germany in 2015. Andrea C. Hoffmann is an author and a journalist, visa mer specializes in the Middle East. She lives in Berlin, Germany. visa färre
Verk av Farida Khalaf
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Kön
- female
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Listor
UN Watch Heroes (1)
Statistik
- Verk
- 1
- Medlemmar
- 124
- Popularitet
- #161,165
- Betyg
- 3.8
- Recensioner
- 3
- ISBN
- 20
- Språk
- 5
"The Girl Who Escaped ISIS" is a quick though very tumultuous read. Farida Khalaf's story, ably helped by Andrea Hoffmann and translated by Jamie Bulloch, is a story of being saved from the pits of humanity. The story, however, is not without permanent scars.
Khalaf had yet to graduate high school at the time of writing this book. Early in her high school career, militant extremists with the help of neighboring villages overran her idyllic community, executing most of the men and abducting the women and children. Khalaf and her peers were sent to various cities to be bought and sold as slaves for sexual exploitation. Khalaf generally describes the men involved in her abductions, although she focuses on the feelings she and her peers have. Perhaps because of her strong feelings of shame, Khalaf and her peers seem to go through various emotional stages. They even begin bargaining after realizing the terrors they are subjected to, with Khalaf trying to get herself sold to a soldier who seems only slightly better than the other militants.
While she goes through various emotional stages, Khalaf and her peers never give up the desire to escape and return to their homes. With the exception of two girls who want to stay with the militants for fear their families will be put in further danger, Khalaf and her peers continue looking for chances to flee from their captors. After several frustrations, Khalaf escapes, as the title tells.
The thoughts and psychological insights, told in first person, can be applied to many areas of conflict around the world, making this book a valuable addition to the literature of current and past wars and their impact on innocent people. This book requires readers to empathize with the plight of civilians caught in the noose of struggles of which they want no part.
"The Girl Who Escaped ISIS" tells readers a very personal story. Readers are given a sense of the terror, fear, and destruction that ISIS has exacted on local populations, upending entire communities with genocidal fury. At a little over 200 pages, Khalaf's book reads quickly. While the ending appears happy at first glance, the story is anything but. Under any circumstances, Khalaf has done well for herself, but the toll ISIS has taken will never be known.… (mer)