Sibel's Silence

Aly Yeganeh
2024-05-01

5
98 min

August 2014, in Sinjar, northwest Iraq, the Yazidi capital. At 13, Sibel was abducted by ISIS men, in front of her family, who were massacred. Like thousands of women and girls, she was reduced to sexual slavery, tortured, and raped because her tormentors considered her a heretic. Uzerche, a small town in central France. An ophthalmologist in her forties, born in France and of Kurdish origin, Hana could not tolerate the atrocities committed against Yazidi women. Hana managed, for a ransom, to save Sibel from her hell and adopted her. They returned to France, and Hana strived to create a "normal" life for her, full of love and attention. Yet, while accepting this new life, the teenager refused to speak. This raped and tortured body horrified her. What life, now, for this young girl?