A DOCUMENTARY SCREENED last night on Channel Four details the incredible bravery of those who brave the fanaticism of Islamic State to rescue kidnapped women and children in Iraq.
Escape From Isis, a Dispatches special, details the kidnap of some 3,000 Yazidi (an Iraqi ethnic minority) women and children following an Isis attack last August in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq.
Many hundreds of Yazidis were killed in the assault.
The kidnapped women are spread across the area currently held by Isis, an area larger than Britain.
All told Islamic State currently holds sway over the lives of four million women in the territory they control, and 10 million people in all.
The film focuses on Iraqi lawyer Khaleel al-Dhakhi who has rescued many women from the clutches of Isis via his contacts, a network of guides, within Isis-controlled territory.
His greatest rescue yet is tracked from start to finish, with 34 women and children met following a three-day hike away from their captors. Once the women are delivered, their guide turns, alone, and returns to Isis-controlled territory.
Aside from documenting the incredible bravery of Khaleel and his colleagues, the documentary gives a truly harrowing indication of what life under Isis must be like.
Isis guards are filmed secretly in an internet café laughing and joking about a slave auction of women. When it comes to the Yazidi people they agree that the only way to deal with them is with guns.
A 21-year-old mother of two who was kidnapped along with her family attempts to describe her capture and suffers almost an allergic reaction, so severe that she has to lie down gasping for breath.
Her child, who can not be aged more than two, is asked to show the camera what she saw Isis soldiers do. The child makes a motion of a knife being drawn across her neck.
An Isis propaganda video details a woman, accused of adultery, being stoned by a group of men.
It’s compelling, and horrific.
The programme has triggered a huge response online today with people marvelling at the bravery displayed by Khaleel and his cohorts.
“We were prepared for harrowing tales of life under Isis, but never expected positive stories to emerge from the horror,” the documentary’s director Edward Watts said in a post on the Channel 4 website.
The brutality that people endure inside the Islamic State is difficult to comprehend.
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