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The Girl Who Escaped ISIS: This Is My Story

Review

The Girl Who Escaped ISIS: This Is My Story

Though growing up in Iraq, Farida Khalaf was just a regular teenage girl --- not to mention an exceptionally talented one in school. Nicknamed “Calculator,” she was the best math student in her class. (She liked physics, too, though her teacher was a little boring.) Farida hoped and wondered if she would be the first person in her village to become a teacher. Life was good.

She passed her ordinary yet exceptional days cooking with her mother, enjoying her family’s garden and spending time with friends. But then the terrorist group ISIS rapidly and unexpectedly took control of her village. The rest of THE GIRL WHO ESCAPED ISIS details the seemingly unending brutality of the ISIS terrorists and, far more significantly, the extraordinarily heroic story of a survivor and witness to perhaps the foulest depravity on Earth today.

"I am humbled to read this account of a living hero, and extend my best wishes on behalf of all who represent freedom to Farida starting a new life as a refugee in Germany."

Men were stripped of their weapons and forced to comply with their cowardly captors, who soon murdered them systematically, while women were sold into sex slavery. Farida was forced into the world of human trafficking, getting by with the help of her friends who bore the same fate. At times Farida was forced to obey a false, twisted interpretation of Islamic law and pray against her will. Not a Muslim, she never lost her own faith as a Yazidi, keeping a precious bond she made with her father that staying true to her own faith was the most important thing in their lives.

Living through the hopelessness of the Raqqa slave market, Farida fought back at every unexpected turn with the inner strength that perhaps only a survivor of unspeakable cruelty can display. Luckily for readers, her inspiring tenacity is well documented time and time again. Her will against tremendous odds is relentless and indomitable, and getting to know the incredible spirit of Farida Khalaf the person makes this memoir a must-read. One does not need to know the strategic or military setup of the Middle East to appreciate the book, as enough such information is included around Farida’s story by co-author Andrea C. Hoffmann for anyone to understand.

Farida walked through the fringes of the world where religious extremism meets religious hatred --- all perpetrated by ISIS terrorists amid their worldview dictated by extreme violence. The misguided, abusive men she was forced to endure made the landscape of Syria painfully bleak, and full of predictably half-witted though deadly war criminals and perverted sexual predators.

This true story speaks about a modern experience that people should recognize as an ongoing reality. I recommend picking up a copy of this rare type of modern memoir that could become all too common if the conditional status quo in the region continues. The world needs to know what ISIS did to Farida and others --- as she wants it --- and she is more than ready to tell her story. I am humbled to read this account of a living hero, and extend my best wishes on behalf of all who represent freedom to Farida starting a new life as a refugee in Germany.

Reviewed by John Bentlyewski on July 22, 2016

The Girl Who Escaped ISIS: This Is My Story
by Farida Khalaf and Andrea C. Hoffmann

  • Publication Date: July 4, 2017
  • Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction
  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Atria Books
  • ISBN-10: 1501152335
  • ISBN-13: 9781501152337