Yazidi woman Ronak Ali Yazdin has returned to Iraq to stand in the forthcoming elections, vowing to step up efforts to rescue thousands of women kidnapped by Isis.

Ms Yazdin, who has been living in Sweden for 10 years, is standing as a candidate on the KDP list in her home town of Shariya in Iraq’s Duhok province.

She said: “To rescue our mothers and sisters from Isis hands, to end living at camps and help return them home, to help recognise the case of Yazidis at international centres, I will need your trust and votes." 

The majority of Yazidis are from the Shingal region in Nineveh province although many were forced to flee when Isis swept through northern Iraq in 2014. 

More than 6,000 women were kidnapped by the jihadist death cult with many being sold as sex slaves. Thousands are still missing nearly four years later.

The only current Yazidi member of Baghdad’s Parliament, and KDP MP for Shingal, Vian Dakhil is standing down this year.

Election campaigning is officially under way with the poll being held in May.