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Sabaya: Q&AWith just a mobile phone and a gun, volunteers from the Yazidi Home Center risk their lives to save women held by ISIS as Sabaya (sex slaves) in Syria's Al-Hol camp.
In northeast Syria, the infamous al-Hol refugee camp is home to some 70,000 Daesh (ISIS) supporters and, hidden amongst them, thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were abducted from Iraq to be held and sold as sex slaves (sabaya). Into this dangerous, labyrinthine territory burst Mahmud and Ziyad, risking their lives to find and rescue the young women, and racing to get them out of the camp and to safety. Mahmud, Ziyad and their fellow activists at the Yazidi Home Center are the subject of this riveting, urgent film by Swedish/Kurdish director Hogir Hirori (The Deminer, 2017).
He captures the enormous task they face, their single-minded dedication and the nail-biting danger of their mission. Meanwhile back at their house, under the loving care of Mahmud’s wife, Siham, and his mother, Zahra, the rescued women begin the long journey to process their trauma.
