Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • NPR

    'I Would Do Anything For Her': A German Dad's Search For His Daughter, Taken By ISIS

    A German father fights to find and bring home his young daughter, taken by his ex-wife when she went to Syria five years ago with her new husband, an ISIS fighter.
    by Joanna Kakissis Jun 16, 2019 6 minutes
    Danisch Farooqi with his daughter Aaliya in Hamburg. "I haven't seen her in five years," he says. He wonders if she has forgotten him.

    Five years ago this month, Danisch Farooqi dropped off his daughter Aaliya at her mother's house in the German port city of Hamburg.

    He remembers walking the girl, then almost 4, to his ex-wife's front door and hugging her.

    "And I said, 'I'll see you next week,' " he recalls.

    A few days later, he received a call from an unknown number in Turkey. It was his ex-wife's new husband. He told Farooqi he was in Turkey, recovering from injuries while fighting in Syria. He'd brought the whole family to Turkey, including Aaliya.

    "I was shocked," says Farooqi, a native of Hamburg. "I didn't know what [he] was talking about."

    He demanded an explanation and threatened to call the police unless Aaliya came home immediately. But the man hung up on him. A month later, Farooqi got a WhatsApp message from his ex-wife, saying they had moved to Syria.

    "She said, 'We went

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from NPR

    NPR2 min read
    Gaza Solidarity Protests Sweep U.S. Colleges; SCOTUS Tackles Starbucks Union Case
    Tensions are high as campus protests over the war in Gaza stretch across the U.S. The Supreme Court will hear a case about pro-union Starbucks employees.
    NPR6 min read
    A Hunk Of Space Junk Crashed Through A Florida Man's Roof. Who Should Pay To Fix It?
    "It was not like anything I had ever seen before," Alejandro Otero says. It turned out his home was hit by debris from the International Space Station that had been circling the Earth for three years.
    NPR5 min readFinance & Money Management
    Housing Experts Say There Just Aren't Enough Homes In The U.S.
    The United States is millions of homes short of demand, and lacks enough affordable housing units. And many Americans feel like housing costs are eating up too much of their take-home pay.

    Related Books & Audiobooks