'Sabaya': Hogir Hirori Directed Documentary On Rescue Of Women Captured By ISIS

Sabaya is a documentary diving deep into the lives of a group who risk their lives in effort to save and rescue women and girls captured by the ISIS to serve as slaves in Al-Hawl, a town in Syria. Directed and edited by the renowned filmmaker Hogir Hirori, for which he won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival.

With no expectations to survive and with car chases and shoot-outs on bumpy roads, the Swedish director’s portrays Yazidi women held by ISIS at Al-Hawl, dangerous camp in the Middle East. Sabaya is his third film completing a trilogy on the impact of war in the region. Other two films being The Girl Who Saved My Life and The Deminer.

He works with Mahmud, Ziyad and the small team of the Yazidi Home Centre. The film shows that girls as old as a year and even newborns are captured as 'sex slaves' in Syria.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2021 and received positive reviews along and 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It is believed to hold “universal acclaim.”

More than 6000 women and girls were forcefully abducted to be slaves also known as “Sabaya” almost five years ago, when the province of Sinjar in Iraq was captured by the ISIS. The Yazidis are a religious minority in the region and the 2014 massacre marked the emergence of the extermination of the ancient religious group.

The film contains detailed accounts of women who were captured, of girls who witnessed their family members’ murder in front of their eyes, of those sold off and abused.

Their story doesn’t end after escaping the ISIS camp. Notwithstanding all the trauma but also the stigma around being a former “Sabaya” destroys their prospects of a good future, the film shows.

The Supreme Yazidi Spiritual Council has reportedly determined that they cannot accept children born after rape. The religion accepts an individual’s religious affiliation only when born to Yazidi parents. Thus, rape-born children are automatically born as Muslims and must be raised accordingly.

The filmmaker says, “I made this documentary so no one could say I didn't know or never heard of it”

Former Sabayas volunteer with the Yazidi Home Centre often act as infiltrators in the Al-Hawl camp amid the mass of ISIS women, apparently involved in keeping the Yazidi detainees confined. Only 206 women have been saved from the estimated 7000. A couple thousands still missing.

Hirori said, "If individual activists, only equipped with a mobile phone with a poor connection and a small gun can achieve so much, then a major organisation can do much more."

Feature Image credit: Hindustan Times

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