A Yazidi Genocide survivor, Siban, shares the story of how her family dug a grave for her while she was still alive
Siban’s family dug a grave for her while she was alive, and this is her story with the kidnapping.
Ezidi 24 – Dilo Haskany
“When I saw my grave, I felt I was really dead, but when I closed and opened my eyes, and will all the courage, I took off the patch that bears my name on the gravestone in the cemetery of the martyrs, and I felt I was born again.”
The 21 years old Siban, who lived in the village of Kocho, 22 km southwest of Mount Sinjar, was not surprised by her symbolic grave. The grave was her will that she left for her younger brother when she was kidnapped in Syria with her brother, who was ten years old at the time.
Siban Khalil Ismail told Ezidi 24, “ When I was kidnapped, I had one wish which was to see Kocho and visit her land again. My mother was alive, and when I saw my little brother in Syria, I told him my wish of digging a grave for me in Kocho if I didn’t survive. He told me to hope that if he survives, he will come to rescue me.”
She adds, “After a while, my brother was liberated, and I did not know that he had been liberated. He was liberated from the place that ISIS later took me. When he arrived in Iraq, he told about this place and how it was bombed with four missiles. From my memory in 2018, I was hit and severely injured due to the missile attacks.
Siban continues, “After that, I received treatment after suffering a lot in the area. My little brother passed my will to my relatives and they carried out the will of digging a grave for me in Kocho. This is why I was not surprised when I saw the grave, but I actually felt that I was dead when I saw it.”
In the end, she said, “It is unimaginable to the extent of the genocide in Kocho. I never imagined that I would see these graves in this place that was an arena for weddings and occasions, so we must not give up, for here in the place of my grave I was born and stay alive with these martyrs.”
In the end, she said, “It is unimaginable to the extent of the genocide in Kocho. I never imagined that I would see these graves in this place that was an arena for weddings and occasions, so we must not give up, for here in the place of my grave I was born and stay alive with these martyrs.”