I cant unlock my apple id because the verification that its want to send to is the exact icloud account thats locked . Wth?

My gfs iphone 7 is locked. It says that her apple id has been locked. We try to unlock it but when trying to sign in to icloud it says its gonna send a verification to her icloud. But how we supposed to open the verification mail if the icloud account is locked ??? Am i missing something?