“I lived in Mosul for five months under ISIS. I tried to avoid trouble but one of my neighbors reported me for shaving my beard. They came to my house while I was sleeping. My mother answered the door and they pushed her out of the way and dragged me out of bed. They asked me why I’d shaved my beard. I didn’t know what to tell them. They dragged me into the center of the city and made me kneel next to five other men. They called out on loudspeakers for everyone to come and watch. A large crowd gathered. The faces in the crowd seemed sad but they had no choice but to watch. ‘These men are atheists,’ they said. ‘And they will be punished.’ They took off my shirt and put a blindfold on me. They said that anyone who tried to go to the hospital afterward would be killed. I was the fifth one to be whipped. I could hear the men before me scream out in strange voices. When the first lash hit me, the pain was so bad that it felt like my soul left my body. They lashed me twelve times. I lost consciousness before it ended and woke up in bed.”

This is my favorite story byfar, it tells of a time of sorrow and pain,a nd for anyone to overcome this takes a brave heart and soul. The pain and misorry that she went through is unbarable and so crul that it is astonishing that she can tell this story