Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

Yezidi women and traditional music

Yezidi women in a Dohuk camp are using music to keep their culture alive six years after their community was almost destroyed by the Islamic State (ISIS)



‘Ashti’, or peace in Kurdish, is a group of nine women living in Dohuk's Khanke camp.

“Let them see that the girls who faced so much difficulty are singing Yezidi religious songs. They are introducing Yezidi songs and culture to other people. This alone is a big thing,” said group leader Rana Suleiman.

“After witnessing tragedy and massacres, they survived and are now singing and introducing the Yezidi culture to others,” she said.

Our main goal is to introduce and spread the name of Yezidis and our culture around the world so it will not be forgotten,” said Yezidi singer Meyan Khalan.

Some of the group members spent time in ISIS captivity, along with thousands of other Yezidis.

The women say they aim to help other Yezidi survivors to overcome their ordeal.

According to the Kurdistan Region’s Office for Yezidi abductees in Dohuk, more than 6,400 Yezidis were kidnapped when ISIS overran the Yezidi heartland of Shingal, near the Syrian border, in 2014. Thousands were also killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Almost 3,000 Yezidis are still in captivity

https://www.rudaw.net/english/culture/01102020

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Women Refugees Advocacy Project

Call for intervention in the humanitarian crisis taking place as thousands of Yazidi leave refugee camps to return to Sinjar

While the world is preoccupied with the Covid-19 pandemic, a desperate struggle to survive is taking place in Northern Iraq/Kurdistan. Today the Women Refugees Advocacy Project, with the support of other organizations, issued an Open Letter to the Canadian Parliament calling for action on behalf of the Yazidi.

Hundreds of thousands of Yazidi people, displaced into refugee camps in Iraq as they ran for their lives to escape the genocidal attack against them by ISIS in 2014, are now returning to a shattered homeland in Sinjar.

“The Yazidi communities are being pushed to return to Sinjar without any help or support from the local governments and without any kind of international protection,” says Rev. Majed El Shafie of One Free World International, recently returned from a visit to the region. “They don't even have the basic support of life.”

Nadia Murad, Nobel laureate and Yazidi survivor, told us, “About half the Yazidi community remains displaced in camps, while some 120,000 people have returned home to Sinjar, many living without water, healthcare or electricity.”

Sinjar is a land shattered by ISIS: bombed out buildings, the infrastructure destroyed. They are experiencing oppressive Covid-19 policies and procedures which interfere with the already deeply inadequate medical care. The Yazidi women and girl survivors of ISIS enslavement are suffering ongoing severe trauma from torture. On top of this, ISIS planted hundreds of thousands of landmines as they retreated from Sinjar during the war.

Lloyd Axworthy, Chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council, has stated, “I urge the Canadian government to explore every potential diplomatic and political strategy to protect and aid the Yazidi refugees as they return to Sinjar. Action must be taken quickly.”

On August 27, a medical doctor in Sinjar spoke to the Women Refugees Advocacy Project: “It is not good here in Sinjar. The water here is bad; you have to buy drinking water. People who cannot afford to buy water are drinking from the wells and are suffering gastro-intestinal diseases.

Electricity is a big problem; you have to have a generator. The one hospital here has only 20-beds, with no operating theatre and staff. Mental health problems are a disaster among the Yazidi, who now have the highest suicide rate in the world.

There are some Yazidi who are trying to clean up and rebuild their destroyed homes but it is dangerous because of all the landmines. And Turkey has bombed Mount Sinjar 100 times in the last few months. We appeal to any government or organization for help.”

Senator Mobina Jaffer reflected, “There are so many issues to attend to in the world, and among the most forgotten people are the Yazidi. We are holding the press conference to raise awareness to the plight of the Yazidi, especially the women and girls. We can no longer ignore them, it’s time to act.”

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-rele ... injar.html

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Jihadist's wife sentenced
for enslaving Yazidi girl

A German court sentenced the wife of rapper-turned-jihadist to three and a half years in prison for having taken part in the enslavement of a Yazidi girl in Syria

Named by the court as Omaima A., 36, the German-Tunisian woman was found guilty of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group by a regional court in Hamburg.

The judges also found her in violation of her duty as a mother by taking her three small children to a war zone, and of a war weapons control act for use of a Kalashnikov rifle.

Early in 2015, the woman and her three children joined her first husband in IS-controlled areas in Syria.

After his death, she married a notorious Berlin gangster rapper who had joined the ranks of the jihadist group.

The rapper Denis Cuspert, better known under his pseudonym "Deso Dogg", had joined IS in 2014. According to media reports, he was killed during an air attack in 2018 in Syria.

The judges found the defendant to be complicit in the enslavement of a 13-year-old girl from the Yazidi minority community.

In the trial, Omaima A. said that she "made a serious mistake five years ago", public broadcaster NDR reported, when she joined her first husband in Raqqa, then the capital of IS in Syria.

She claimed that the Yazidi girl was a "guest" in their house.

"I apologise to her for not having been able to help her," the woman said.

But the public prosecutor's office said that she had never truly broken with the jihadist organisation.

Her lawyer argued that she had been content to maintain the home and look after her children without supporting the militant actions of her two husbands.

Two other trials are being held in Germany in connection with abuses committed against the Yazidis.

A German woman has been in the dock since April 2019 for war crimes and murder, accused of having left a five-year-old Yazidi girl dying of thirst in Iraq.

Linked to the same crime, an Iraqi man has been on trial since last April in Frankfurt for murder and genocide, reportedly unprecedented against a member of IS.

The Islamic State group committed atrocities against the Yazidis in 2014 that are being investigated by the UN to determine whether they can be qualified as genocide.

https://www.thelocal.de/20201002/jihadi ... azidi-girl

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Yazidi spiritual leader Baba Sheikh dies at 87

Nobel laureate Nadia Murad described him as "a beacon of light."



Members of the Yazidi faith are mourning the loss of Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail, the spiritual leader of their ancient religious minority.

Baba Sheikh died Thursday at the age of 87 from health complications, his office said. He was hospitalized on Tuesday in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, for kidney and heart issues.

The Yazidis are a mainly Kurdish-speaking minority whose religion combines elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam and features a fallen angel as its central figure.

The Islamic State, which considered the Yazidis devil worshippers, overran their ancestral homeland of Sinjar in August 2014. The group killed thousands of Yazidi men and kidnapped more than 64,000 women and children in what the United Nations would later call a genocide.

More than 2,800 of the women and children taken captive in August 2014 remain missing, with many feared dead. Those who survived now live in camps scattered along northern Iraq, trapped in poverty.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, who survived captivity by the group, described Baba Sheikh as a “beacon of light” during a dark chapter in Yazidi history.

“The Yazidi spiritual leader embodied our values of wisdom, kindness & tolerance. He led the community by example & treated Yazidi survivors with love & respect. He will be forever missed,” she tweeted.

“Baba Sheikh will be remembered in our history as one of the most important leaders of the [Yazidis],” the advocacy group Free Yezidi Foundation wrote in a statement. “His office has worked hard to help [Yazidis] maintain their identity despite the struggles and challenges our people face.”

Iraqi President Barham Salih described Baba Sheikh as "one of the symbols of tolerance and coexistence in the country" and the US State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs expressed sadness at his death.

The Yazidis’ secular leader, Prince Tahseen Said Ali, died in a German hospital in January at the age of 85. His son Hazem Tahsin Bek, a former member of the Iraqi Kurdish Parliament, took his place in July.

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origin ... eader.html

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Yezidi spiritual leader
laid to rest in Shekhan

Tributes have been paid to Yezidi spiritual leader Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail, who is being buried in Shekhan’s Bozan village today



He was a peace advocate and loved by all the Yezidis and respected by different communities in Iraq and around the world," read an official statement from Yezidi organisation Yazda.

"Baba Sheikh will be remembered in our history as one of the most important leaders of the Yezidis," said The Free Yezidi Foundation. "Baba Sheikh has comforted those in the Yezidi community suffering the most and has stood as symbol of pride and resilience for our people during our difficult days."

"It hurts a lot...his greatest wish: peace, dignity and protection for his Yezidi people has not come true," tweeted German Yezidi activist and journalist Duzen Tekkal.

Khairy Bozani, head of Yezidi Affairs at the KRG Ministry of Religious Affairs told Rudaw on Friday that Baba Sheikh will be buried in a special religious ceremony.

“All preparations have been completed and the Sheikh will be buried with a ‘proper religious’ ceremony in the village of Bozan in Shekhan town,” Bozani said.

“We are very sad, this man was a symbol of peace, brotherhood and sincerity," his brother Edo Sheikh told Rudaw.

Baba Sheikh, who was 87 years old, passed away on Thursday after being hospitalized for health complications.

The religious leader was hospitalized on Tuesday for deteriorating kidney and heart issues.

Yezidi activist Murad Ismael remembers Baba Sheikh as someone who “reconciled” Yezidis at times of differences.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani released a statement on Thursday, sending his condolences to Baba Sheikh’s family and the Yezidi community as a whole.

“Baba Sheikh, as a religious leader of the Yezidis, devoted his life to the Yezidis’ cause and spent many years caring for the religious and social affairs of the Yezidis, and he had a remarkable role in coexistence and acceptance of others, and his traces and imprint will remain eternal,” Barzani said.

Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also expressed his condolences over the death of the leader in a statement late Thursday, saying "Baba Sheikh was a renowned and important figure in the Kurdistan Region and the world. He played a significant role in promoting religious coexistence in the Kurdistan Region."

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/021020203

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Forgotten: 6 years after genocide

International community must prioritize justice for Yazidi community

The young human rights activist, who was among thousands of Yazidi women forced into sexual slavery by the terrorist group, reminded countries that the impacts of its atrocities endure to this day.

Statement by the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for #Iraq (SRSG) Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on the 6th Anniversary of the genocidal campaign against the #Yazidi Minority (3 August 2020) pic.twitter.com/WrooiECI3x
— UNAMI (@UNIraq) August 3, 2020

Outrage and inaction

Ms. Murad said although 100,000 Yazidis have returned to their homeland in Sinjar, in northern Iraq, they lack vital services such as healthcare and education.

Meanwhile, scores more remain in camps, nearly 3,000 kidnapped women and girls are still missing, and dozens of mass graves have yet to be exhumed.

“The world watched in outrage and demanded that tangible action be taken to end the genocide. But six years later, the international community has failed to keep its commitments to protect those most vulnerable, especially women and children,” said Ms. Murad, who now lives in Germany.

Justice is possible now

The commemorative event was held to ensure the world never forgets how ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as Da’esh, tried to erase the Yazidi community through sexual violence, mass executions, forced conversion and other crimes.

It was co-hosted by Nadia’s Initiative, an organization founded by Ms. Murad, alongside Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

ISIL committed “heinous crimes” against all Iraqis, the country’s Ambassador, Mohammad Hussein Ali Bahr Aluloom, told the gathering.

“Da’esh tried to wipe out Yazidis in an attempt to destroy Iraqi diversity and peaceful coexistence that is guaranteed by our constitution,” he stated.

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney recalled that the international community established tribunals for genocides in Germany, Bosnia and Rwanda, while the International Criminal Court is currently investigating crimes against Rohingya in Myanmar.

She told diplomats Yazidi survivors deserve no less.

“Doing nothing is not only wrong, it is dangerous because these fighters are not going anywhere and their toxic ideology continues to spread,” said Ms. Clooney.

“And justice is possible now, just as it has been possible before, if only it is made a priority.”

Resolve differences now

The UN’s top official in Iraq urged the authorities in Baghdad and in the autnomous Kurdish region in the north to resolve their differences to better support the Yazidis.

“Stable governance and security structures are crucial foundations for the community to rebuild and thrive,” said Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

“So, once again, I call on the governments in Baghdad and Erbil to urgently resolve this file, placing Sinjaris’ interests first and foremost.”

Support Iraqi draft law

Two years ago, the United Nations established an Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL, known by the acronym UNITAD.

Special Adviser Karim Khan outlined some of its activities, which include helping with exhumations, collecting evidence, and working with various authorities in Iraq to better understand Da’esh criminal networks.

However, he explained that UNITAD is “an investigative team on the lookout for a court” so that fair trials for crimes against the Yazidis can be held.

Mr. Khan commended a draft law presented in November which would allow Iraq to prosecute acts committed by Da’esh as genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

“In my respectful view, this is critically important. If we don’t call it for what it was; if we don’t label the crimes correctly, we are doomed, or at least there is a real risk they may reoccur,” he said.

“And I think in terms of giving confidence to the Yazidi community, the courage and the stamina of the international community to create that piece of legal architecture would go a long way.”

https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/08/1069432

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Yezidi businessman murdered

A Yezidi businessman and philanthropist was murdered on Sunday while driving along the Shekhan-Alqosh road in Nineveh, relatives and a local official confirmed to Rudaw

Bashir Hussein Gorya, 46, was shot as he drove home from a funeral held for the late Yezidi spiritual leader Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail in Shekhan, in the northwestern Iraqi province of Nineveh.

Jawar Saado was one of two relatives in the car with Gorya when he was murdered.

"A red vehicle was stationary ahead of us. We neared them, and once he [the assailant] saw us, he got out of the car and started to shoot at us with a pistol," Saado told Rudaw.

"As he fired at us, I jumped out of the car. Had I not jumped out of the way, he would have killed me too," Saado said.

Gorya, a father-of-two, was from the village of Mushrafiya in Alqosh. He funded projects for Yezidi survivors of the Islamic State (ISIS) genocide, including orphanages.

"His most recent sacred work was to open an orphanage for survivors of ISIS, those who lost their parents in this fight," Zaaim Kret, a teacher from Mushrafiya said.

The deceased philanthropist "had even taken charge of the all the expenses of the orphanage, which is home to 360 orphans," Kret added.

Shekhan, a predominantly Yezidi town administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is just 23 kilometers from Alqosh, administered by the Iraqi government.

Both the motive behind the murder and the assailant's identity are unknown, Alqosh town mayor Lara Zara told Rudaw on Sunday.

"We will definitely continue our follow-ups to discover the perpetrators of this act," Zara said.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/04102020

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Baba Sheikh hero of women

Yazidi leader Baba Sheikh leaves legacy as champion of women seized by Islamic State

Click Image to Enlarge:


In the death of Yazidi spiritual leader Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail, at the age of 87, Yazidis have not only lost a spiritual leader, but also a champion of a community of women who survived genocide and slavery.

Baba Sheikh, as he was commonly known, died on Thursday following hospitalisation in Erbil due to health complication from kidney and heart illnesses.

The spiritual leader, who is the supreme religious authority of the Kurdish Yazidi minority around the world, was highly esteemed and praised for his key role in helping the community avoid feuds, and reintegrate thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were rescued from slavery by Islamic State (ISIS) militants.

Thousands of Yazidi mourners, governmental and partisan officials, and Islamic as well as Christian religious figures attended leader's funeral on Friday

Hajji Ismail was buried beside the graves of his ancestors in Bozan village of Sheikhan district in Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate.

“His loss has left a gaping hole in the Yazidi community and inside the religious system,” Khairy Bouzani, head of Yazidi affairs at the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) endowment and religious affairs ministry, told Middle East Eye.

The Yazidis suffered the worst massacre in their modern history in their hometown of Sinjar when ISIS militants invaded the town in June 2014, killing males and kidnapping thousands of Yazidi women and girls, forcing them to convert into Islam and marry militants or face death.

More than 6,400 Yazidi women were kidnapped, but only half have been rescued or escaped, while the fate of the rest remains unknown.

The Yazidi faith requires its adherents to marry from within their own community, and those who marry outside risk excommunication. Conversions to another religion are also not permitted.

But Baba Sheikh called for compassion for the survivors of IS brutality, saying they should not be regarded as outcast after the experience they had endured.

Succession

“Baba Sheikh played the most important role within the Yazidi community, since he is in charge of all religious affairs and can make religious decisions independently,” Hadi Baba Sheikh, the leader's younger brother and the manager of his office, told MEE in a phone interview.

“Following the rescue of two Yazidi girls from ISIS in Fallujah, the late Baba Sheikh made a historic decision on 28 August 2014 declaring that all Yazidis - women, girls, men, and children - who were forced to convert to Islam should be accepted within the Yazidi community,” Hadi Baba Sheikh said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.

Hajji Ismail was a descendent of the Sheikh Fakhradin, the family through which the line of spiritual leaders has inhered for centuries.

A member of the spiritual leader's family will be chosen to succeed him following consultations between family members, Yazidi tribes, and the Yazidi Supreme Spiritual Council, headed by Yazidi Mir (prince) Hazem Tahsin Saeed Beg, when 40 days of mourning have passed, Hadi Baba Sheikh said.

A source in the family told MEE that Baba Sheikh's son Farhad is a likely candidate to succeed him as spiritual leader.

The supreme council consists of four members, and three deputies of the Mir. The spiritual leader or Baba Sheikh is traditionally a key council member.

Jawher Ali Beg, Mir Tahsin Beg’s deputy, said candidates for the post of spiritual leader must meet some criteria in order to be considered for the highly respected position.

“The person should be familiar with teachings of the religions of Yazidism, Islam and Christianity, to be a respected and wise man, and friendly to people,” Mir Tahsin Beg told MEE.

Bouzani said that the candidate should be “charismatic”, have a good reputation, and be capable of shouldering all the duties of the spiritual leader.

Some Kurdish political parties interfered in the process of naming the new Yazidi Mir in July, attempting to keep their influence over the minority.

Asked how political pressure would impact the nomination of a new spiritual leader, Tahsin Beg said the political affiliation of the Baba Sheikh is disregarded as long as he “serves the people”.

‘A beacon of light’

Nadia Murad, 27, a Yazidi survivor of sexual violence and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, said the community has lost a "beacon of light".

“The Yazidi spiritual leader embodied our values of wisdom, kindness & tolerance," Murad tweeted on 1 October.

“He led the community by example & treated Yazidi survivors with love & respect. He will be forever missed.”

Baba Sheikh

In 2017, Baba Sheikh was honoured by the Iraqi parliament and the United Nations for his critical role in supporting Yazidi survivors of sexual violence and facilitating their recovery and integration into their community.

“Baba Sheikh had a key impact among all Yazidis in Iraq, in the Kurdistan region and all over the world; his passing away will deeply affect the psychology of the Yazidi individuals and neighbouring communities,” said Khairi Ali, an activist with Eyzidi Organisation for Documentation, a Sinjar-based organisation that documents crimes against the Yazidis.

There are approximately 1.5 million Yazidis worldwide, according to Yezidis International, and not all of them are originally Kurds.

This doctor is giving life back to female Yazidi victims of Islamic State

Independence

Different minorities in the Nineveh plains, including Yazidis, Christian, and the Shabaks want to break away from the northern Nineveh province to form their own demilitarised province.

Jawher Ali Beg told MEE that he supports such efforts on condition that a future province would be under the administration of the KRG.

According to Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, Sinjar, Makhmur and other areas of the province are considered disputed areas between the Iraqi federal government and the KRG.

Nearly 500,000 Yezidis lived in Iraq, mainly in Sheikhan, 50km northeast of Mosul, and in Sinjar, 80 kilometres west of Mosul, before the IS invasion of the region.

Three years later, thousands had died and nearly 100,000 had fled abroad.

Since their displacement in 2014, many Yazidis have been living in terrible conditions in camps located in the Kurdistan region and in tents at the foot of Sinjar Mountain.

They have been unable to return to Sinjar as efforts to rebuild their extensively damaged hamlets have been hampered by political conflicts between some members of the community loyal to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which helped in recapturing the town, and the KRG.

While the Yazidis mourn the death of Baba Sheikh, they are also awaiting the nomination of a new spiritual leader who would be able to complete his ancestors' work and lead his people towards peace, stability, and coexistence with all components of Iraqi society.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/baba ... eader-dies

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ISIS Survivors Commit Suicide

Driven by "unbearable" memories, the suicide rate among members of the Yazidi religious minority is increasing more than six years after the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group attacked Yazidis' homes the Sinjar district in northern Iraq, according to Yazidi activists

Many Yazidis who fled the ISIS into Iraqi Kurdistan's refugee camps are now facing mental health issues. The distress is particularly acute among women who experienced sexual violence while in ISIS captivity.

"There are multiple factors pushing some Yazidis to commit suicide, but the main reason is the unbearable memory of what happened during the IS genocide," said Khodr al-Domali, a Yazidi researcher and coordinator of social support to Yazidi women in refugee camps.

Al-Domali said thousands of Yazidis in refugee camps are afraid to return home because armed groups are fighting over who will control their villages and towns now that IS jihadists are gone. Yazidis who have returned home can't find work or educational opportunities, and they face discrimination by surrounding communities.

"Many Yazidis continue to experience the horrors they went through as their areas remain widely destroyed and they don't find adequate help ... so they could deal with the trauma," he told VOA.

In its rampage across Iraq and Syria in August 2014, ISIS attacked the area in northern Iraq where about 400,000 Yazidis lived. The jihadi group killed thousands of Yazidi men, kidnapped thousands of women and girls to use as sex slaves, and reportedly kidnapped young boys for training as suicide bombers and ISIS fighters.

The United Nations called the IS attacks a genocidal campaign.

According to the Kidnapped Yazidis Rescue Office in Duhok, Kurdistan Region, 3,543 kidnapped Yazidis have been rescued from IS, but some 2,800 remain missing.

Mostly women

Local activists say there is no official data about the Yazidi suicide rate, and some may be unreported. They are certain, however, that the majority of suicides are Yazidi women. The local news outlet Rudaw, located in Iraqi Kurdistan, estimated that some 150 Yazidi women have committed suicide since the genocide began in 2014.

"Yazidi women took the hardest toll during the genocide," said al-Domali. "We noticed that most of the women who committed suicide were waiting for the return of their kidnapped family members or they found out that their families were found in mass graves."

He continued, "The Yazidi community is ready to adapt and work on its issues, and the answer is psychological support, financial aid and social help."

Local media reported in September that a 53-year-old Yazidi woman, Dai Shirin, had set herself on fire and died in the Khanki refugee camp in Duhok province after failing to determine the fate of her husband and six children. In August, a young Yazidi man, Nashwan Sharaf, hanged himself in Duhok's Bajid Kandala camp.

Counseling support

Lina Villa, a mental health activity manager with Doctors without Borders (MSF) who works with the Yazidi and Arab communities in Sinuni Hospital in Sinjar district, said, "We see different levels of symptoms in the communities we are serving, like depression, angry and suicidal thoughts, suicidal attempts. Some patients have intrusive thoughts, and they are having revivals of the situations they have faced, flashbacks, delusions and hallucinations — also, anxiety, stress, fear and psychosomatic like short of breath, loss of appetite and lack of sleep."

In this Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 photo, Yazidi families displaced by Islamic State group militants take shelter in a partially…
FILE - Yazidi families displaced by Islamic State group militants take shelter in a partially constructed building in Dohuk, northern Iraq, Dec. 10, 2014.

Villa told VOA that between April and August, her organization received 30 reports of people who attempted suicide. Last month, 25% of the patients expressed suicidal thoughts, she added.

A 2019 MSF report based on a mental health survey from Sinuni Hospital revealed that all the families interviewed had at least one member who suffered either moderate or severe mental illness.

Giving Yazidis a voice that will allow them to feel dignified and settled in their homeland, accompanied by social support, will help address the problem of suicide, according to Villa.

"The main thing that Yazidis have lost is a sense of security and protection," she said. "The communities we serve return to their homes and fields, they find everything has been destroyed, and they feel their ordeal continues. When a traumatic situation doesn't stop, it becomes more difficult to cope with that situation."

https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch ... rs-suicide

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Shingal children fight for education

Saadi Kheri has had to ride a horse to get to school for four years, but he considers himself one of the lucky few. Of the 30 children of schooling age in Zerwa, a village located at the foothill of Mount Shingal (known as Sinjar in Arabic), only ten are able to attend school



“It takes me 20-30 minutes riding a horse to [get to] school in Zorava village,” said Saadi of the eight-kilometer journey he takes because Zerwa does not have its own educational facility.

In eleven villages north of Shingal, there are 800 children in need of a school, according to Nuyasir Haji Salih, the head of the Shingal Education directorate. Only 18 of the 91 schools of Kurdish-language instruction located in Shingal prior to ISIS tearing through the area have opened this year.

“We are asking for a school to be built for us,” said Izzat Alias, one of the 150 students from Shorka village, located near Sinune town, who has to hitchhike to school. “We stand on the road every day, the cars don’t always pick all of us up and we are always late.”

There were nearly one thousand teachers educating in Kurdish prior to 2014, according to the education directorate. Of this number, only 80 have returned to Shingal to work in 18 different schools.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/07102020

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Art helps Yazidi survivors heal

Health and art can overlap powerfully and we firmly believe that through the power of art we can support healing, community solace and hope for the future

This view was expressed by Fady Jameel, president of Community Jameel International, when he chaired a special UN75 discussion on the healing power of art after trauma and conflict last month. The webinar was convened by Community Jameel and The Future is Unwritten with a special focus on a case study relating to the Yazidi people of Iraqi Kurdistan, who were the victims of Daesh’s genocide in 2014, which effectively led to the exile of surviving Yazidis.

Dr Maher Nawaf, director of Yazda UK and board member for Yazda Global, described some of the work being done to help the Yazidi people. “Thousands of Yazidi children who had been recruited to (Daesh) training camps and brainwashed have been treated and re-educated in Yazidi heritage, language and history,” he said. “Involving them in artistic activities significantly improved their mental state and behavior.”

English artist Hannah Rose Thomas has seen first-hand how art can help traumatized people to express their suffering in a way not always possible through words. She spoke to Arab News after the webinar to discuss her work with Yazidi women.

“Survivors of violence need to be able to feel like a person again and have a voice (after experiencing) such a profound sense of powerlessness,” Thomas told Arab News. “Art was a way for me to heal and emerge from my own experience of PTSD and sexual assault.

It was such a key part of my own journey that it made me want to do these kind of projects to help other women and to give them a voice. My own experience is nothing compared to what (the Yazidi) women have been through but it does help me to have some sense of understanding of the emotional impact (such experiences) have on you.”

In 2017 Thomas travelled to Dohuk in Northern Iraq with clinical psychologist Sarah Whittaker-Howe for an art project with Yazidi women who had escaped Daesh captivity.

With the aim of using art as a tool for advocacy, Thomas painted portraits of some of the women she met there, which have since been exhibited in the UK. “I decided to paint the women in the style of icon paintings. The gold leaf is to convey their sacred value in spite of all they have suffered at (Daesh’s) hands. In the Western media the dominant narrative has been about sex slaves and I wanted to put across the stories that the women wanted to communicate through a different lens.

When we see these women as mothers and daughters, we can connect more with their stories. I wanted to show them in the paintings as survivors — not victims. I was blown away by the resilience and determination to survive of these women and how they care for and support one another. The power of the human spirit to overcome such horrendous experiences keeps me filled with hope.”

Thomas also gave the women art classes. Their self-portraits were shown alongside her own paintings of them. Thomas recalled how one Yazidi woman called Basse described her self-portrait, set at the time of Daesh separating her from her six-year-old daughter.

Basse told Thomas: “They took her hands out of my hands, and put her into the hands of the enemy…. every day and night I imagine what Daesh are doing to her.” Basse escaped but her daughter did not.

Thomas heard many such tragic stories during her time in Dohuk. “The unimaginable experience of a mother being separated from her daughter — the agony of not knowing whether they will ever see their children again. or what is happening to them at the hands of Daesh, those nightmares keep them awake,” she said.

“The process of painting together was a way to build up trust. The idea was to create a safe space for the women to share their stories. For survivors of human-rights violations, everyday verbal language is inadequate to convey the extent of the trauma and depth of emotions they have experienced,” she explained. “The arts can give them a new form of communication to address the violence and unspeakable behavior which is too terrible to utter aloud.”

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1745961/lifestyle

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Historic’ deal over disputed Shingal

Baghdad on Friday reached a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over the governance and security of the disputed district of Shingal in Nineveh province, according to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s spokesperson

Kadhimi “sponsored a historic agreement which will bolster the federal authority in Shingal as per the constitution in terms of governance and security,” tweeted Ahmed Mullah Talal.

The deal “ends the authority of intruding groups and paves the way for the reconstruction of the city and the full return of its people in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government,” he added

The agreement was announced after a meeting between representatives from Baghdad and Erbil. "It's a good agreement, and we had a good meeting with the Iraqi prime minister in the presence of UN and Iraqi sides," KRG Interior Minister Reber Ahmed told Rudaw.

He said he hoped the agreement will help displaced families return to their homes.

Details of the agreement have not been immediately released.

Shingal is the homeland of the Yezidis, most of whom remain displaced six years after the Islamic State (ISIS) committed genocide against the minority group. Since ISIS was ousted from the area, multiple civil administrations and armed groups have sought to stake a claim.

There are as many as six armed groups vying for control, including federal and regional forces, Iraqi militias, and groups affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey has launched airstrikes on Shingal, targeting groups aligned with the PKK.

The deal reached today will “accelerate and facilitate the return of the displaced to the district,” according to a statement from Kadhimi’s office.

Delays in returning stability to the area and helping people to return home has come “at the expense of the people who suffered from Daesh [ISIS] terrorists yesterday and suffer from a lack of services today,” Kadhimi said in the meeting, according to the statement.

The federal and regional governments will work together to implement this agreement, “in cooperation with the people of Sinjar first,” he added.

Kadhimi also pledged that his government will work to find Yezidis still missing, years after they disappeared under ISIS rule. The fate of 2,880 Yezidis is still unknown.

KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani did not attend the meeting, but said he spoke about it with Kadhimi after the deal was signed.

It is “the outcome of months of serious work and discussions between the Kurdistan Regional government and the federal government,” read a statement from Barzani’s office. "Both sides agreed that Shingal will be jointly governed in terms of administration, security, and service. This agreement is a beginning for the implementation of Article 140 of the constitution."

Shingal lies within the areas claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad, as described in Article 140 of the constitution that outlines a plan to resolve the dispute.

Head of the United Nations mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, welcomed the agreement, saying it would usher in "a new chapter for Sinjar [Shingal], one in which the interests of the people of Sinjar come first."

Spokesperson Talal said that previous cabinets failed to create trust and return security and stability to the troubled region, but that Kadhimi has succeeded in this regard.

Murad Ismael, co-founder and former executive director of Yezidi advocacy organization Yazda, tweeted that he welcomes “in principle” any agreement that “normalizes the security and administration of Sinjar,” but is waiting to see full details of the deal.

The United States Embassy in Baghdad said it welcomed the Friday agreement, saying it hopes it will “lead to lasting security and stability for the Iraqi people in northern Iraq.”

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/09102020

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First and important step

An agreement between Iraq’s Federal and the Kurdish Regional governments on Friday paves the way for reconstruction in the north of the country, in what the UN has called “a first and important step in the right direction”

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) expressed hope that the new pact, on the status of northern Iraq’s Sinjar district in Ninewa, would pave the way for a better future.
An uphill battle

In 2104, ISIS terrorist fighters took control of significant swathes of the north, committing atrocity crimes including genocidal acts against the Yazidi minority, centred around their centuries-old ancestral home of Sinjar.

Today’s agreement between the Federal and the Kurdish Regional governments is a first and important step in the right direction. High time to reach out to the people of #Sinjar and to make them feel that they are, indeed, part of the broader community. pic.twitter.com/sjqfgA3ydp
— Jeanine Hennis (@JeanineHennis) October 9, 2020

Nearly 3,000 kidnapped women and girls are still missing after many were trafficked and enslaved in other parts of former ISIS territory.

Yazidi rights campaigner and UN Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad, told the Security Council in August that 100,000 of her people had now returned to the Sinjar area.

Since the military defeat of ISIL, discord over security arrangements, public services, and the lack of a unified administration, have plagued victims and survivors.

Turning a page

The UN Special Representative for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, shared her hope on Friday that the agreement would usher in “a new chapter for Sinjar, one in which the interests of the people of Sinjar come first”, while also helping “displaced people to return to their homes, accelerate reconstruction and improve public service delivery”.

However, the UN official cautioned that “for that to happen, stable governance and security structures are urgently needed”.

She tweeted that it was “high time” to reach out to the people of Sinjar, to “make them feel that they are, indeed, part of the broader community”.

‘Against all odds’

The Special Representative emphasized that the UN would continue to help normalize the situation in the district.

“Against all odds and in their darkest hour, the people of Sinjar remained determined to build a better future”, upheld Ms. Hennis-Plasschaert. “May that future begin today”.

Further support welcome

In a statement, Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, thanked the UN Special Representative for her “support and personal involvement in this process”.

“We would welcome further support from the international community for Sinjar, including assistance in repairing critical infrastructure, to help rebuild the many lives destroyed” by ISIS, he continued.

Mr. Barzani called the agreement the result of “months of hard work and negotiations” between Erbil and Baghdad, that will “help to allow the people of Sinjar, including Yazidis and others who suffered so appallingly…to return to their ancestral homes in safety and with dignity”.

“The normalization of Sinjar will ensure that its people can determine their own future”, he upheld.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1075102

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Corona virus disrupts Yazidi pilgrimage

More than once, Murad performed Hajj ceremonies at the Lalish Temple, the holiest of religious shrines for the Yazidis. “I used to follow the steps I learned from my mother, so I could take a shower, and wear clean clothes in respect of the sanctity of the shrine,” he tells us via Twitter

This year, the young Iraqi displaced will not visit Lalish, during the collective Eid, or the Hajj season for followers of the Yazidi religion, which begins on October 6 of each year and continues until the 13th of it.

This holiday represents the most prominent Yazidi religious occasion, as pilgrims visit the shrine of the prominent religious figure in their history, Uday bin Musafir, located in Lalish, east of Dohuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Murad says: “Every time I visited Lalish during the collective festival, I felt endless joy from the beginning of the ceremony until its end, and my psychological comfort accompanied me, to the sounds of spiritual music that reached the ears of every visitor.”

This year, the Corona epidemic prevented the revival of the annual collective rituals, in addition to the death of Khartu Haji Ismail, the Pope of the Sheikh of the Yazidis in Iraq and the world, that is, the supreme religious authority for followers of the religion, at the beginning of this month.

Baba Sheikh passed away at the age of 87, and he was known for his great influence on the Yazidi community during the years following the genocide in Mount Sinjar (or Shinkal, as the Yezidis pronounce it), in 2014.

Yazidi tweet Monty Ibrahim Baba Sheikh describes that he was “humble and loving, and he had a personality unparalleled”. He added, “The most important decision he took after the genocide was his recognition of the right of every Yezidi woman who returns from the hands of ISIS to embrace among her family. He treated her as if she had not gone kidnapped, which facilitated their integration into society and their marriage to Yazidis, unlike what was happening in the past.”

Activist and journalist Ibrahim Al-Yazidi narrates about the influence of Baba Sheikh in the issue of the survivors, as “he poured water on their heads from the sacred water spring” Kania Spi “(the white eye) in the Lalish Temple, so that they would not feel frustrated and calm their souls.

The Yazidis have several feasts throughout the year, indicating their close association with nature. The most prominent of these holidays is the Red Wednesday or “Sri Sal” in April, during which it celebrates the season of fertility and the renewal of nature, and “Jamaia Shekhadi” or collective, which is their holiest holiday, and they celebrate it in the midst of the year and the beginning of autumn, which is a preparation for winter and rain.

Monty Ibrahim says: “Lalish is the holiest place on earth for the Yazidis, and it contains the tombs of the righteous Yazidis and the“ white eye ”where children baptize. During the past years, Lalish used to visit during the 7-day Hajj season, about 35,000 people a day.

The Yazidis were cut off from performing their rituals after the genocide at the hands of the “Islamic State” in 2014, for a short period, and they were cut off this year also due to the epidemic.

The ritual lasts for seven days, and each day includes different traditions and prayers, the most prominent of which is what is known as the ritual of heaven, and is performed every evening. Also among the rituals is the baptism of the wells, which are long fabrics dipped in holy water, and are hung at the entrance to the shrine. Likewise, the Qabag ritual means taking a calf from the door of the main temple to the shrine of Sheikh Shishmas.

There is also a special dance that the Yazidis perform on their holidays, and it is called the Kovand dance, an expression of joy in circling, and its steps and rows are similar to the dance of the Dabkeh.

One of the servants of the holy shrines in Lalish cleans the place after the Hajj season in 2016, near a model attached to it with fabrics to indicate wishes

One of the servants of the holy shrines in Lalish cleans the place after the Hajj season in 2016, near a model attached to it with fabrics to indicate wishes

Music plays an important role in the Yazidis’ pilgrimage to Lalish, as there are no sacred texts of their faith, but the prayers and religious stories were passed down through the generations. A special class of Yazidi clerics, known as the Qawwalis, are responsible for preserving these prayers and passing them on from generation to generation. And every feast, he echoes the sacred texts, and accompanies them by playing the tambourine and the flute.

Among those prayers is what Murad translates to us from the Yazidi language: “Oh, my Lord, the highest of your affairs, the glory of your place and the highest of your authority, O my Lord, you are the gracious and you are the Most Merciful, O Lord, you are always the Creator and always for you befitting praise and praise.”

The Yazidi tweet says: “Research on the Yazidi religion needs to delve into philosophy and eternal science and the meanings of faith in it, to gradually reach the light, and not to rely on false information.”

Among these false information is that the Yazidis worship Satan, or that their name is derived from the name Yazid bin Muawiyah. However, the followers of the religion, with their exposure to massacres throughout history, are closed to their beliefs, and they avoid transmitting them to others, and it is a non-missionary religion that does not accept new converts, and Yazidis are not allowed to marry people of other religions.

Historians disagree about the source of the Yazidi religion, but it is believed that it was the religion of the Kurds before Islam, and it has influences from the ancient religions of Iraq, and influences of Zoroastrianism. It is believed that the most prominent figure in its history, Sheikh Uday bin Musafir, introduced to it mystical influences.

Yazidis pray five times a day, are kissed by the sun, and they believe that they are the children of the first human, Adam. The Yezidi creation myth believes there is one god (Khudi), the creation of the world, and seven angels, whose leader is a king peacock. Followers of this religion believe that the Creator does not interfere in the affairs of humanity and the universe, but rather entrusted their affairs to King Peacock.

Peacock Malik is considered to be the embodiment of the Creator’s spirit in the Yazidi beliefs, and it is confused with Satan in the Abrahamic religions, because the religious legend says that Peacock refused to prostrate to Adam, because he only bows down to God. Note that the term “Satan” is considered a great insult to the Yazidis, as it is related to imprecise concepts about them.

The Yazidis separate the religious leadership represented by Baba Sheikh, and the civilian leadership represented by the Emir. The position of Prince Hazem bin Tahseen Bey Saeed is currently held, and he was chosen in 2019 to succeed his father, Tahseen Bey. The religious leaders and the emir will meet to choose a new Pope to succeed the late religious leader.

Yazidi society is based on special class divisions, it imposes respect for it, and intermarriage is forbidden between its members. The upper class is the Sheikh class, and it is believed that it descends from the Six Angels, and the Bir class and descends from Bir Alaa, one of the companions of Uday bin Musafir, and the Murid class, and represents the majority of Yazidis.

Yazidi social traditions are based on raising children morally, based on religious heritage, and journalist Ibrahim Al-Yazidi describes his group as “a component of peace, who have always been a support for their neighbors.”

Over the years, the Yazidi community has witnessed a gradual opening up, as a visit to the Lalish Temple has become available to everyone, and is not restricted to followers of the religion only … Visiting it may be a unique spiritual experience, were it not for the Corona epidemic.

https://alkhaleejtoday.co/coronavirus-n ... re-no.html

[Anthea]

Shingal will recruit locals
into security forces

Under the Erbil-Baghdad agreement on Shingal, struck on Friday, security for the troubled region will be the responsibility of the federal government, which will establish a new armed force recruiting from the local population and expel the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to details released on Saturday

Part of the “historic” deal is the employment of 2,500 people, to include “1,500 Yezidi youth from the camps and 1,000 young men from Shingal as part of the security forces in the district,” tweeted Ahmad Mulla Talal, spokesperson for Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Talal explained that the agreement to reorganize the administration and security of the Yezidi homeland falls under “the exclusive authority of the federal government” and will be done “in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government.”

A new armed force will be formed, according to details of the plan shared by Farhad Alaaldin, chairman of the Iraqi Advisory Council. The agreement will also end the presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and all its affiliates.

The PKK participated in the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Yezidi homeland of Shingal and it supports the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) who are one of some six armed groups or forces currently operating in the Shingal area.

Turkey, which has carried out airstrikes against alleged PKK targets in Shingal, tentatively welcomed the new agreement. The Foreign Ministry said it hoped the plan will lead to “re-instating the control of the Iraqi authorities in Sinjar [Shingal], the eradication of DAESH [ISIS] and PKK terrorist organizations and their extensions in the region and ensuring the safe return to their ancestral lands of Ezidis [Yezidis] and the other people of the region who have been subject to grave oppression and persecution of first DAESH and then of PKK.”

The ministry added it was ready to cooperate with Baghdad in “countering terrorism” in Shingal and elsewhere in Iraq.

A new mayor will also be elected and rehabilitation and administration of Shingal will be jointly coordinated by Erbil and Baghdad, according to details shared by Alaaldin.

The agreement has been welcomed by the United Nations, the United States, and France, while Yezidi organizations are waiting to see full details of the plan. “We are not rushing to optimism,” said the Free Yezidi Foundation, adding that Yezidi groups need access to information about the deal.

A group called the Shengal Autonomous Administration said the people of area were not included in the talks between Erbil and Baghdad and rejected any decision imposed on them without their participation, according to a statement published by the PKK-affiliated ANF media.

Shingal lies within areas disputed between the governments in Baghdad and Erbil. The Yezidi population fled when ISIS swept through northern Iraq in 2014, committing genocide against the minority group. Hundreds of thousands sought refuge in camps in the Kurdistan Region, more than 6,000 people were kidnapped by the group, and over 1,200 killed. Federal forces took control of the region in 2017 after the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.

The Yezidi population remains traumatized and few have been able to return to their homes because of lack of reconstruction and services and the suicide rate among Yezidi youth is on the rise.

Kadhimi said the agreement will “accelerate and facilitate the return of the displaced to the district.”

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani welcomed the deal as “a national step in the right direction and it is in the interest of the entire country. It will lead to restoring and strengthening trust between the Federal Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government.”

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/101020202