She endured years of Syria’s brutal war, before being kidnapped, abused and forced to become an IS fighter’s child bride at age 11.
Just days ago, she was finally rescued. Yazidi refugee Azima’s unimaginable suffering is palpable from her sad stare and barely audible voice.
But despite enduring such horrors, this tiny 16-year-old’s humanity never waned throughout her nightmare in the heart of Islamic State’s caliphate.
Even as IS were finally beaten, she fought her instinct to flee and stayed to help terrified children, despite being barely out of childhood herself.
Azima – now in a safe house in Syria – was, until seven days ago, in a refugee camp with IS women who might have killed her for being Yazidi.
Along with thousands of Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority abused and killed by IS for being non-believers, she was caught up in the IS genocide in Sinjar, northern Iraq in 2014.
Five years later, after she was dragged with IS to their final redoubt in Baghouz, she was rescued by Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF].
But in the confusion and lack of a processing system, Azima – like other IS kidnap victims – was bundled into the same camp as other suspected IS brides and children.
She said: “I was in Baghouz when the final attack came and somehow, along with other Islamic State children and the family I was married into, we escaped.
“We were taken to the SDF camp with thousands of other women. I was very frightened as they could kill me once I was no longer protected by the Islamic State family I had been with.
There were five Islamic State children I was taking care of. I did not want to leave them as they were too young.
“Finally, I found someone who could look after the children.
"Only then could I find the camp commander and quietly tell him I was a Yazidi who had been kidnapped by IS years ago and I wanted to go home to my family.”
Azima was smuggled out and driven to the safe house in north-east Syria, where she speaks to us now.
She cannot bring herself to talk about her “husband”, an Azerbaijani foreign fighter who was 19 when he “married” her. She says that she survived five years of captivity because the family of the fighter, who was killed two years after taking her, cared for her.
Quietly, but firmly, she says: “I was one of the lucky ones. Marrying him meant I was not passed around the fighters. I survived. Now, I just want to go home. It has been five years since I saw my family – those that are still alive.”
Up to 12,000 Yazidis were slaughtered or kidnapped by IS fighters in 2014 in Sinjar. Girls as young as 10 were sold off as sex slaves to jihadis or married to fighters. Many men were beheaded, shot or buried alive in the genocide.
Like so many little girls, Azima was seized with her mum Adlan, sister, Denise, then aged five and her brother, 32, who was killed weeks later.
Azima, her mum and sister were taken to Mosul, northern Iraq, and then they were separated.
Later, Azima was driven to IS’s then HQ in Raqqa, northern Syria. When that fell in 2017, she went to Baghouz. Her father and two remaining brothers are stuck in northern Iraq, unable to reach her. But for now Azima is safe, in the home of Yazidi woman Zahoura Qado.
Her secluded farmhouse, where fleeing Yazidis and sometimes Muslim refugees can stay, provides a peaceful place for them to begin their recovery.
Zahoura, who is in her 50s, says: “We have rescued so many hundreds of Yazidi children and women here.
“They were starving, terribly frightened and traumatised. They had broken arms from being beaten, the kids wept at night, wetting themselves from nightmares.
“Now, I hope, I pray, they will have a future after what they suffered.”
Azima smiles at Zahoura and tells us: “I am happy with her. I want to thank her for all that she done for me and the other Yazidis. I hope to return to my family and will never forget her.”
Courage of women defying ISIS terror: Female fighters want equality as they protect their loved ones
Barely out of their teens, these are the Syrian female soldiers fighting against IS.
Brave and battle-hardened, they have a strong feminist spirit that is rare among other cultures in this region.
Every bit as skilled as their male counterparts, they have vowed to die to protect their Kurdish community.
They are YPJ fighters, part of the People’s Protection Unit, whose male soldiers are called YPG – they are all now part of the Western-backed Syrian Democratic Force.
Many of them join the YPJ for life, vowing to purge the region of Islamic State.
We met them at their base near the town of Hasakah in north-eastern Syria. Arianne Zargoz, 21, was part of the YPJ and YPG military operation to smash the IS HQ in Raqqa.
Asked about being a soldier, Arianne says: “We want to be in the same place as the men. To be equal.
The female gender has a very strong will, in some ways much more than men. Women carry babies in their body – we can carry more than the men sometimes.”
Helen Judi, 20, also fought IS. She says: “There is nothing new about equality between men and women – it has been around for thousands of years. We have stood together against the terrorists.”
Another woman, who gives her name as Kurdistan, 19, says: “We do not fight because we want to kill people. We do it to protect those we love.”
