(Al Jazeera) – Aysha hears screams in her sleep. Nightmarish memories flash through her mind — her husband writhing on the village road, face to the ground, hands tied behind his back; 2,000 women huddled on the floor, with men prowling around them, growling words they don’t understand; a man with a deep voice approaching, saying “You are for me.” Aysha shrinks, tosses, opens her mouth to scream but hears only wails from her 1-year-old son. Faces and noises blur together. She yells for her husband, but he is far away and cannot hear. Eventually she wakes up, realizing once again that she is one of the lucky few who have escaped. Rain leaked into the cold, unfinished house where 19-year-old Aysha, a Yazidi, lives, dripping mud onto her mat on the floor. Her son whimpered in his sleep. Aysha (who asked that her real name not be used) cradled him in one arm, rubbing her bulging belly with the other. Five of her relatives were asleep in the same room, flies buzzing at their faces as rain pounded outside the window. “One more month,” she whispered to her unborn child. “Then you will be here.”
