Abstract
In 2014, the weaponisation of the female body materialized once again when Da’esh systematically raped and tortured thousands of Yazidi women, starting a genocide against the Yazidi people. Wrongfully labelled as dirty devil-worshippers by others, the Yazidi have suffered continuous massacres throughout history and are now faced with unbearable physical and mental traumas from the horrors brought upon them by Da’esh.
The agony Yazidi women endure does not simply end when they are rescued or escape from captivity. The impacts of Da’esh’s genocide last well beyond physical liberation. Many face social stigma and lack adequate resources and support to deal with their trauma. While women returnees are welcomed back into the community, children born out of rape are not. Women are forced to choose between their child or their community. Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services are imperative to the healing and continuation of the existence of the Yazidi community.
Keywords: Iraq, Yazidi, Weaponisation, Violence against Women
By Minalè Nouri
On 3 August 2014, Da’esh (or ISIS/ISIL) violently entered towns surrounding Shingal mountain to kill and kidnap roughly 10,000 Yazidis [1]. Shingal is home to a diverse range of ethnic and religious groups, among them, the majority of the world’s Yazidis. When Da’esh arrived, 96% of the population fled the towns up to the mountain; those that got captured were either forced to convert to Islam, executed upon refusal of conversion, or enslaved. These atrocities were part of a strategic plan to eradicate Yazidism and have been recognized as attempted genocide by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [2]. While the recent massacre can be considered one of the most "successful" attempts at genocide against the Yazidis, the persecution of their people is nothing new to the ethnic and religious minority group.
Firmans are a central part of Yazidi collective memory and refer to mass killings by Muslim local rulers [3]. Yazidis claim to have suffered 74 firmans to date, with the most recent attack seen as merely a fraction of wider suppression [4]. Generally not accepted to the community of faith between monotheistic religions, Yazidis are commonly depicted as ‘devil-worshippers’. These assumptions are based on incomplete and narrow-minded understandings of the Yazidi religion [5]. However, this depiction has led to longstanding suppression, discrimination, genocide, and persecutions of Yazidi people [6]. Among the Yazidi people, women are most severely targeted. Abduction of Yazidi women is considered demasculinizing for the men who are not capable of protecting their wives, daughters, and mothers. A woman’s honour, and thereby that of the entire family, is lost by pre- or extramarital sexual relations, regardless of the voluntary or involuntary nature [7]. As a rule of the community, people who have sexual relations with non-Yazidis relinquishes their Yazidi identity and faith [8]. Thus, there was a possibility that these women would not be able to return to their community. The historical context together with the cultural embeddedness of honour generated the fear of abduction of Yazidi women. This fear became a horrifying truth in 2014 when an estimated 3,537 Yazidi women were kidnapped (the exact number might be higher) [9]. Some of them were given as a “present” to fighters, while others were sold in auction houses to members of Da’esh or males of the local population. Da’esh created price lists based on age, appearance and virginity on which the price of an individual ranged from $13 USD to $12,500 USD [10]. The majority of women and girls that were enslaved faced horrific acts of sexual violence such as daily rape, physical and mental torture. Some even had to undergo hymen surgeries before being resold.
The explanation behind the sexual violence and enslavement of these women goes beyond male sexual pleasure, a mere by-product of war, or the savagery commonly associated with Da’esh. Furthermore, despite Da’esh gaining large profits through human trafficking, revenue was also not the primary incentive of the group. This was a personal attack on Yazidi culture. Rape is a weapon of war. It is deliberately and systematically employed parallel to other practices seen in armed conflict [11]. There is a symbolic value to rape that puts those subjected to it at the bottom of the hierarchy through both humiliation and mental and bodily harm [12]. This undermining was intended to cripple all Yazidis. The belief that Yazidism had to be eliminated was Da’esh’s main rationale and this discourse was used to obtain power and legitimacy. Enslaving Yazidis was, therefore, part of a larger strategic plan that aimed to eradicate Yazidism, in which Da’esh employed interpretations of the Qur’an to legitimise sexual slavery. According to such interpretations, in times of war, slavery is permitted, and it is the right of the jihadist to command sex from their non-believing female slaves [13]. However, the use of rape is a phenomenon endemic to the region, occurring far before the arrival of Da’esh [14]. It is safe to say that women suffered gravely during Da’esh captivity; however, their suffering did not start there nor will it end upon liberation.
Trauma, social stigma, and physical injury are a few of the challenges female returnees encounter [15]. According to Yazidi traditions, women who have been sexually abused lose their honour. The progressive response by the spiritual father of Yazidism, Baba Sheikh, was thus positively surprising. He endorsed returning members as full and pure members of the society to whom no harm, such as honour killings, must be done [16]. A new ritual cleansing was adopted in which returning women are washed in holy waters of Zem-Zem at Sheikh ‘Adi, which is usually reserved for the baptism of children [17]. This cleansing supposedly purifies the women and allows them a respected return to the community.
Despite the progressivity of these policies, they do not completely remove social stigma or discrimination and not all women are welcomed back by their families. More worrisome is the rejection of children born from rape by their captors. This practice is founded on both Iraqi law and Yazidi religious tenets. Iraqi law states that a child has to be registered as a Muslim if their father is one [18]. Yazidism requires both parents to be Yazidi for the child to be considered Yazidi and live among them [19]. Women who bore children from Da’esh thus had to choose between returning to their community, but leaving their child behind, or not being allowed back. The latter option would automatically result in discrimination anywhere in Iraq as an unmarried woman with a child is a deviation from the norm [20]. One returning woman who was forced by the community to leave her children behind, states during an interview: ‘It’s better for me to forget them and not care about them. At first, when I was liberated, I wanted to know what happened to my children but with time I learned to live without them’ [21]. Many others face similar hardships upon return to the community.
While currently, the Da’esh do not occupy territory, they have not simply disappeared, nor has their horrific notoriety. Indeed, research conducted in 2020 indicated that over 90% of former enslaved Yazidis suffer from PTSD and elevated levels of suicidal thoughts [22]. Yet, there are limited mental health and psychosocial support services available to Yazidis, which can partially be explained by the widely existing taboo surrounding mental health. Access to services is further complicated because many Yazidis currently live in refugee camps. Processing trauma should be seen as being of the utmost importance to the healing of the community. NGOs, governmental organisations and the international community have increasingly considered MHPSS to be a critical step in post-conflict reconstruction [23]. In addition to such support, organisations should advocate for the implementation of a legal framework allowing the prosecution of the perpetrators so Yazidis might receive a small fraction of justice [24].
The future of the Yazidi folk is fragile as is the possibility for the restoration of their community. Many do not wish to return to their homes in Shingal for several reasons. First, most of their homes are completely destroyed or are covered in Da’esh symbols. Second, the horrors that occurred in that place cannot easily be forgotten and going back is simply too painful. Finally, the Yazidis do not trust their former Arab and Kurdish neighbours anymore. They argue that when Da’esh entered, no one was there to protect them... so why would it not happen again? Despite all this, hope lies with strong community voices, such as that of Nadia Murad, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to continue raising awareness for the Yazidi cause.
References
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10. Ibid.
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