Yazidi families struggle to find and free enslaved daughters

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on the humanitarian crisis the Yazidis of northern Iraq are facing. Part one is here.

DOHUK, Iraqi Kurdistan — Aysha hears screams in her sleep. Nightmarish memories flash through her mind — her husband writhing on the village road, face to the ground, hands tied behind his back; 2,000 women huddled on the floor, with men prowling around them, growling words they don’t understand; a man with a deep voice approaching, saying “You are for me.” Aysha shrinks, tosses, opens her mouth to scream but hears only wails from her 1-year-old son. Faces and noises blur together. She yells for her husband, but he is far away and cannot hear. Eventually she wakes up, realizing once again that she is one of the lucky few who have escaped.

Rain leaked into the cold, unfinished house where 19-year-old Aysha, a Yazidi, lives, dripping mud onto her mat on the floor. Her son whimpered in his sleep. Aysha (who asked that her real name not be used) cradled him in one arm, rubbing her bulging belly with the other. Five of her relatives were asleep in the same room, flies buzzing at their faces as rain pounded outside the window. “One more month,” she whispered to her unborn child. “Then you will be here.”

The U.N. is monitoring and reporting on the captured Yazidis’ situation to the Security Council and the Human Rights Council. It is advocating for the Iraqi government and the international community to “do all they can to rescue these women and children” and to care for escapees, said Francesco Motta, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Iraq, in an email.

U.N. officers declined to specify what “do all they can” means, explaining that their mandate does not include military or political action. The Secretary General’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, and special representative for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, made a joint statement condemning the “barbaric acts” and urging all parties to protect civilians.

Although the Kurdish parliament sent a formal delegation to the Hague asking for recognition of ISIL’s actions as genocide, the request was rejected on grounds that Iraq is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Membership would be the “first step” toward international recognition of Yazidi genocide, said Kurdish Iraqi Prime Minister Zana Rostayi. Also, it might spur international accountability for the former Iraqi regime’s anti-Kurdish campaign and chemical attacks in the 1980s, not to mention a host of ongoing human rights violations against civilians committed by the Iraqi Security Forces and affiliated forces. As long as both government and nonstate armed groups continue to violate international law, Iraqi accession to the ICC is unlikely.

Many parties are trying to track the kidnapped and escaped Yazidis, but their efforts are disparate and uncoordinated. Meanwhile, the Kurdish government’s special committee on Yazidi refugees and escapees issues numbers for those who have fled. “Everyone is trying to do something but has no idea what the others are doing,” said Mustafa.

The result is redundancy at the advocacy level and disillusionment from the girls who have escaped. Aysha said she has told her story to several journalists and NGO workers who promised they were there to help. A few of them gave her some money, she said, about $300 altogether.

The special sensitivity of sexual abuse makes rescue efforts difficult to coordinate. The escaped girls are not only physically wounded and mentally traumatized but also vulnerable to public shame that can lead to further violence. Early in the conflict, U.N. agencies set up a 24/7 hotline in Dohuk, wanting to publicize the number and provide medical services, shelters and specialized trauma counseling for escaped women. But the Dohuk Directorate of Health asked the U.N. to stay out.

Aysha said she had never received or heard of free assistance for victims of sexual violence. But she wasn’t seeking it. Since escaping a month ago, she went to a doctor to check on the pregnancy but didn’t mention anything about having been in ISIL captivity. “There are so many sick people. He doesn’t have time for more stories about suffering,” she said.

Luma, a doctor and sexual violence specialist in Dohuk who asked to be identified by first name only, said most women would not come forward for help. “The problem is not finding them,” Luma said. “The problem is convincing them to come and follow instructions when they don’t want to talk about the subject at all.”

When the U.N. had its 24/7 hotline, only one or two cases were identified over two weeks of service, according to UNHCR protection officer Nabeela Sweisat. All the escapees interviewed for this article said they hadn’t been sexually abused, although all said they knew other women who were. Many of them had male relatives in the room who interrupted to say, “She is clean.”

Iraq’s displacement crisis is dire. Many Yazidis are living without blankets or roofs, and winter rains have begun. The girls run away from rape only to live under plastic tarps, nameless and shamed among 1.9 million newly displaced people, more than half of whom do not have basic food, water and shelter. Aid workers told Human Rights Watch that three escaped Yazidi women attempted suicide in the displaced people’s camps since August. One of them succeeded.

“In this whole conflict, it’s the women who have paid more and more,” said Mustafa. “They are used like wood for a fire.” Amid all the horrors of this crisis, the Yazidi women’s plight must be especially addressed, she said. Those who talk to these girls must not only take their stories but also refer them to the groups that can help before it’s too late.

Aysha seems to have given up on obtaining help. She refuses to approach the service providers in Dohuk, even when told they will maintain confidentiality and offer free help.

“I’d rather stay at home,” she repeated. Her baby is coming, and she’s tired.

“Write my story if you want,” she said, “but nothing will happen.” She turned toward the window and watched the rain, rocking back and forth, eyes glazing over, alone.