As a withered woman roamed the gates of refugee camps in Iraq,
constantly drawing attention as she carried a large photo of her little
girl with the hope that someone would recognize her.
She
is among more than half a million Iraqis have been displaced from the
city of Mosul, troubled by the fierce battles. Many camps have been
hastily built to absorb around 10,000 people each.
The woman in question, Christina’s mother, is
found moving constantly between camps with a poster of her daughter who
was 3 years old when she was kidnapped by ISIS militants. The little
girl was mercilessly grabbed off her shoulder when over 70,000 Iraqi
Christians fled Mosul in July, 2014.
Christina
would be six today if she is still alive. Her mother lives in Bahraka
camp, in the city of Arbil, which includes thousands of Christian
refugees who fled from Mosul after ISIS seized the surrounding villages.
A team working for the “Death-Making” - a
program on Al Arabiya - headed to the camp to speak with Christina’s
mother. The families housed in the camp know each other as most of them
have been displaced together from the area of Qaraqosh. The story of
Christina's mother is one of the touching stories that all camp
residents sympathize with.
“My husband, a
blind man, was sick and unable to escape. I sent my older children to
run away with people in town. I stayed behind with my husband and
younger daughter, Christina, and I thought she would be safe, no matter
how cruel they were. I didn’t expect them to hurt my little girl. What
would make them hurt a little girl like her or even a woman?”
“We
were told that we must convert to Islam, pay ‘jizya,’ (a form of
taxation) or leave the city. I told them that we will think about it and
asked for more time. My husband was recovering, so I took him and
carried my daughter on my shoulders looking to leave the city. However,
she was then captured and I had to go back to Qaraqosh and beg them to
return my daughter.”
Christina’s mother
added: “I was surprised a few days later when I went to see the head of
the unit (a 50-year-old Tunisian) that he was carrying her and she was
sitting on his lap. I cried and begged for her return. He pointed to one
of the fighters to send me outside …this armed man told me they would
cut my head off if I remained in the city one more day. I left with my
husband feeling my heart bursting out of my chest.”
Although
this story took place three years ago, the negotiations between
Christina’s mother and ISIS militants were pushed through mediators in
Qaraqosh as well as Mosul. The responses were always disappointing, but
the mediators sent her a recent photo in which Christina looked happy
and in good health. However, they told her never to ask about her child
again.
No one can justify precisely why the leader of
the organization in Qaraqosh held on to this helpless girl. She is too
small to be taken into captivity, although some horrifying tales related
to child sexual abuse continue to surface. There are other explanations
suggesting that one of the fighters decided to adopt the girl and save
her from “hell”.
All these theories only
mean tears and never-ending sorrow for Christina’s mother. She prays
every day to reunite with her daughter and for that dream she crosses
dozens of kilometers every week to the camps. A large photo of her
missing child has been spotted every now and then and has even been
rescued from the flames in the streets of Mosul.
A
touching moment was Christina’s mother taking out her daughter’s
garments that would fit an older girl. The mother tearfully explained
that “whenever good people distribute clothes to the refugees, I imagine
Christina growing up. So I pick something appropriate for her age and I
am full of hope she will use it some day…”