In this deeply touching survivor testimony shared on Assyrian Martyrs Day 2025 organized by the Assyrian Church of the East - Diocese of Victoria and New Zealand in Melbourne, parishioner Almas Youkhana shares her story of faith and survival as a former ISIS hostage in Syria.

The February 2015 assault on the ancestral Assyrian settlement in Syria unleashed a wave of displacement and deep trauma that reshaped the fate of the Assyrian community of al-Hassakah, Syria. Sadly, nearly 90% of the local population fled, abandoning homes, farms, and ancestral villages going back generations.

The 45,000 or so Assyrians had turned the barren wasteland into a rich agricultural breadbasket for the region, demonstrating the ability of indigenous ethnic minorities to thrive when given some form of political and administrative autonomy. While the campaign of brutality and terror saw homes attacked, men, women and children abducted, and historic churches destroyed, the ultimate victory has been that of the survivors who have kept their faith and Assyrian identity and are forging successful lives of hope and happiness.