Shireen Khudeeda was just 19-years-old when Islamic State fighters arrived at her village and killed more than 250 men.
She tried to flee but was abducted by ISIS militants and held captive as a sex slave for three years.
The young girl and her neighbours were victims of a genocide against the Yazidipeople, which left 5,000 of their community dead and was recognised by the United Nations and UK.
Twelve years on, she and other survivors say the West has failed to honour their pledge to prevent genocide and prosecute those who commit it.
A British judge is now set to lead a Truth Commission later this year to address the failure of the UK and other international governments to deliver justice for the Yazidis.
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Shireen, now 31, shared her story with Metro to raise awareness of the horrors endured by her people and the cold shoulder the West has shown them since.
In 2014, the teenager had ‘big dreams’ for the future as she lived a normal life with her family in the village of Hardan in northern Iraq.
The community exclusively composed of Yazidis – a Kurdish-speaking religious group that was a minority in Iraq and were viewed as ‘devil-worshippers’ by the extremist Islamic State.
The jihadist group had just burst onto the international stage in 2014, when they seized vast swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq.
In August, the fighters reached the Hardan and the sprinkling of other Yazidi villages on the northern side of Shingal Mountain, close to the border with Syria.
Recalling their arrival on the morning of August 3, 2014, Shireen said: ‘ISIS came to our village and asked us to raise a white flag, saying that no one would be harmed.’
However her family knew this was a lie.
She had relatives in other villages on the southern side of Shingal Mountain, who had already been killed by ISIS.
So that afternoon, Shireen and her family tried to flee.
She said: ‘We tried to escape towards Shingal Mountain, but we could not make it.
‘ISIS stopped us at a junction. They separated the men from their families and also took young boys who were around 13 or 14 years old.
‘They then drove the families to a school, where thousands of women and children were being held.’
United Nations research from October 2014 estimated that around 250 to 300 men in Hardan were separated and killed by ISIS, including 10 by beheading.
Shireen was one of thousands of Yazidis who was torn away from her family and by jihadists, facing unspeakable abuse.
She said: ‘I was taken to Mosul and held captive as an ISIS sex slave for three long years.
‘I was passed around and sold to several different ISIS members, enduring a non-stop nightmare of isolation, horror, and absolute brutality.’
Shireen said that ISIS fighters ‘raped us, sold and bought us, and even gifted us to one another.’
The then-teenager even saw a man being shot in front of her very eyes.
Despite this, she did not lose hope that the West would come and save her people.
‘When other women were crying and saying that ISIS would kill everyone and enslave them, I told my grandmother that this was something huge and that the great countries would help us and release us,’ she revealed.
‘At that time, I truly believed that.’
That rescue never came. Instead she risked her life and successfully escaped ISIS captivity in 2017.
Islamic State killed more than 5,000 Yazidis, enslaved an estimated 6,000 people, including 2,700 of whom are still missing.
While the English-speaking world typically call the group ‘Yazidis’, many members of the community refer to themselves as Ezidi.
The United Kingdom acknowledged in August 2023 that ISIS had carried out a genocide, following the lead of the UN, Germany, France and the US.
Shireen – who like many survivors believes the genocide is ongoing – is unconvinced by these acts of recognition.
She said: ‘I would like to ask UK a question: Did they even try to stop the genocide while it was taking place?
‘And in the last 12 years, has the UK even tried to find a solution for our ongoing suffering?
‘Recognition alone is symbolic and simply not enough when perpetrators and their complicit actors remain free, and in many cases, are treated with more respect than the survivors themselves.’
The Genocide Convention of 1948, which the UK ratified in 1970, compels countries to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
However campaigners say the UK and many other Western countries have failed to prosecute anyone for committing genocide.
Aldo Zammit-Borda, Professor of Law at City St George’s, University of London, told Metro: ‘There has been a large number of foreign fighters who joined ISIS at the height of the violence.
‘A number of those have been returning to the UK. Although there have been some prosecutions for the crime of terrorism, but that is a different crime.
‘We would like the UK to prosecute these foreign fighters for the crime of genocide.’
Prof Zammit-Borda is behind a new Truth Commission which has been established to hold countries to account for their ‘inaction’ over genocide.
The Commission, which is community-led, will be chaired by renowned human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy KC and have a panel of internationally recognised commissioners.
The panel will hear oral evidence from over 30 survivor-experts and specialists across three days before submitting a landmark report wto the Houses of Parliament in 2027.
Prof Zammit-Borda said: ‘The Commission is there to create momentum for justice for the Yazidi people. To remind the world that they are waiting for justice.’
Only a handful of cases prosecuting genocide have taken place in Germany and France, including one member of ISIS found guilty of the crime against the Yazidis in November 2021.
A UN inquiry, however, has identified more than 1400 suspected perpetrators of genocide.
Cases involving crimes committed overseas can present particular challenges, including gathering admissible evidence, securing witness testimony, and establishing jurisdiction.
The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command does have a war crimes team that investigations allegations of genocide, as well as crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture.
Earlier this year, the CPS charged a man with an offence of crimes against humanity relating to international crimes committed in Syria, following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing’s War Crimes Unit.
The Truth Commission is particularly focused forcing Iraq to begin prosecuting fighters for genocide, and wants the UK to apply diplomatic pressure on the country to implement a legal framework for that to happen.
Shireen, who has worked as an advocate since her escape, wants the Commission to ‘recognize the failures that allowed the genocide to happen, and contribute to justice and accountability.’
She added: ‘ The UK and the international community have failed us by offering promises and sympathy instead of the real accountability, justice, and action we need.
‘True justice means examining all aspects of the genocide to ensure this will never happen again.’
The survivor also wants more investment in professional centres to provide treatment and support for survivors.
There are less than 1,000 Yazidis living in the UK. The largest expat Yazidi population is in Germany, where more than 200,000 live.
The Truth Commission is being funded by the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) which is part of UK Research and Innovation.
The Commision is being led by a diverse team of experts at City St George’s, University of Manchester, and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies.
The Foreign Office refused to comment.
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