She was born near Tikrit to a Sunni family in 1956 in what was then the Kingdom of Iraq . Married young at 13 , she never had the opportunity to attend school . She lost a husband , son and nephew to ISIS terrorism . In 2014 , after the Camp Speicher massacre , she rescued over 50 Iraqi ( Kurds , Shia Muslims , Yezidis and Christians ) cadets behind the lines , and smuggled them to safety . She gave women ’s clothes to some of the young men and hid them in the women 's quarters on her farm . Others dug holes in a forest . IS fighters were hunting for the recruits , so Alyah obtained university identity cards for some of them , giving them local names . She taught those who were Shia how to say their prayers like a Sunni to protect them from sectarian suspicions . Over five months , she smuggled them to safety in Kurdish-held Kirkuk , hiding them in trucks surrounded by female relatives . After her cover was blown , her entire family of 25 fled the ISIS , returning only after the group ’s defeat
Camp Speicher massacre
Camp Speicher massacre
Aliyah Khalaf Saleh