"He's my son; he's not the son of ISIS."
Thus declared Umm Al'aa, a 40-year-old Iraqi Christian woman who gave birth to a baby boy after being raped by an ISIS fighter in Gogjali, Iraq.
Speaking to CNN, Umm Al'aa (not her real name to protect her family) said when her son grows up, she will never tell him who his real father was.
She named her son Mohammed, after her husband, an Iraqi soldier who was killed on Nov. 1 during the battles on Mosul's eastern outskirts, where Iraqi and coalition forces are battling Islamic State (ISIS) fighters.
Umm Al'aa said Mohammed's real father was an ISIS militant who raped her while she was being held captive by the terrorist group.
Despite this, she said she will never allow herself to undergo abortion since she considers her still unborn child already a part of her family as much as her other sons and daughters.
She told CNN that she was already a mother and grandmother when ISIS seized her hometown in 2014.
She said the terrorists targeted her family when they refused to pledge allegiance to the jihadist group, like what their neighbours did.
She said she and her children were at the mercy of ISIS fighters who regularly came to their home to threaten them. But they still refused to bow to the jihadis.
One day, she said the militants attacked one of her young daughters and were about to rape her when their commander stopped them and told them that "We want the mother" instead. At that time Umm Al'aa was not at her home.
But a few days later, the militants spotted Umm Al'aa and kidnapped her.
She said for a year and a half, she lived as a prisoner. Then one of the militants beat and raped her.
"I tried to fight, I cried a lot. There was a lot of pain, I was beaten a lot, but I couldn't do anything," she told CNN.
She was already pregnant by the time she was released.
Despite her condition, Umm Al'aa was filled with joy that she could be with her family again. However, their happiness was cut short when her husband was killed in battle.
"He loved me a lot. My best memory of him was how much he loved and respected me," she said of her husband. "Yes we are poor people, but we were happy."
