Iraqi minority shuns children born of IS rape, enslavement
DAHUK, Iraq (AP) — The 26-year-old Yazidi mother faces a heartbreaking choice.
Her family is preparing to emigrate from Iraq to Australia and start a new life after the suffering the Islamic State group wreaked on their small religious minority. She is desperate to go with them, but there is also someone she can't bear to leave behind: Her 2-year-old daughter, Maria, fathered by the IS fighter who enslaved her.
She knows her family will never allow her to bring Maria. They don't even know the girl exists. The only relative who knows is an uncle who took the girl from her mother and put her in an orphanage in Baghdad after they were freed from captivity last year.
"My heart bursts from my chest every time I think of leaving her.