Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

Kurds Agony

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – “The life is miserable. We are still scattered in camps and cities. On the other hand, girls and women of Sinjar remain under ISIS,” Shakir Hayali, a displaced person from Sinjar, said “They should be rescued from ISIS, Yezidis in the camps have not been given much attention and the Iraqi government”

Kurds as an independent, large ethnicity and a nation without an independent state in the middle east, have gone through series of genocides, as well as attached by Mass-Killing Chemical weapons.

From 1980s, when the toppled dictator Baath regime committed a mass killing to Barzanis, Ba’ath’s army and troops didn’t hesitate murdering them in groups, until the very recent one in 2014, Yezidis at the hand of terrorist ISIS.

In the last two centuries’ genocides (known as Anfal campaign among Kurds), which happened to different Kurdish clans in cities and villages in Kurdistan Region, Hundreds thousand of Barzanis, Garmian, Badinan and Yezidis were murdered at different stages and under different times.

Mass-murdering Kurdish people, have a live-agony impact on the two generation followed that tragedy.

After passing several decades, ten thousand of orphans, disabled. Women extremely suffer.

There are hundreds of researches approve the tragic sequences of appalling physical and mental suffering that the families who were left behind, go through.

A decade has passed since the Yezidis genocide occurred at the hand of terrorist ISIS, resident from Sinjar who are displaced, living in the camps, waiting for the normalization of the situation back in their city and to be returned to their homes.

It has reached such a deadlock making Displaced Yezidis to see no hopes to go back to their place of origin. Therefore, they find it safer to stay in the camps than to return to a devastated and militarized area.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Refugees held a joint conference with a delegation of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iraq and Kurdistan Region.

KRG and humanitarian Organizations are certainly working to restore peace to the region and the displaced people to return to their homes.

The Head of Information and Communications at the Interior Ministry's Joint Crisis Center, Ali Saeed said “the refugee camps will not be closed randomly, but the camps will continue”

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been cooperating and coordinating with the Iraqi government and the United Nations over the past 10 years, to resolve the problems of the people and refugees of Sinjar, so they can return to their homeland.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/36 ... 0%99-Agony

[Anthea]

Kojo Village Reconstruction

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Thursday initiated the executive phase of the Kojo residential village project in Sinjar District, northern Iraq

Kojo, a Yezidi village located south of the Sinjar Mountains in Nineveh province, gained international recognition after the 2014 genocide by the Islamic State (ISIS).

In August 2014, the Islamic State launched a brutal campaign against the Yezidi minority, involving ethnic cleansing, mass executions, forced conversions, and widespread sexual violence. Over 6,500 women and children were enslaved, and more than 350,000 Yezidi were displaced, according to UN reports. Thousands were killed.

The Kurdistan Region Parliament officially recognized these atrocities as genocide in 2019, declaring August 3rd as a day of remembrance. In August 2023, Sudani directed the start of reconstruction efforts for Kojo village, part of broader initiatives to rebuild the Yezidi homeland.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/859509

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Nineveh demands action to heal Yazidi wounds

On Saturday, the local government in Nineveh called on the federal government in Baghdad and the international community to take four critical steps to address the wounds of the Yazidis, who faced genocide during ISIS's control of Sinjar District in 2014

Governor Abdul Qader Al-Dakhil told Shafaq News Agency that the Nineveh local government, under the direct supervision of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, laid the foundation for the "Modern Village" project in the village of Kojo in Sinjar.

Al-Dakhil described the laying of the foundation stone for the modern village as the beginning of the reconstruction of Sinjar. He outlined four essential steps for healing the Yazidi community, which involve cooperation from both central and local governments as well as the international community.

These steps include: bringing the perpetrators to justice, tracking missing Yazidi persons, compensating the victims, and starting the actual reconstruction of Sinjar

Prime Minister Al-Sudani supervised the laying of the foundation for the modern village project in Kojo via remote video connection on Thursday. The project, funded by the US Agency for International Development and implemented jointly by the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Development Programme, will include 134 housing units, a health center, and a school.

In August 2014, ISIS launched a campaign against the Yazidi minority after seizing several Iraqi cities. The campaign included ethnic cleansing through mass executions, forced conversions, widespread sexual violence, and the slaughter of thousands of Yazidis. ISIS enslaved over 6,500 women and children and displaced more than 350,000 people into refugee camps, according to UN data.

In 2019, the Kurdistan Regional Parliament voted to recognize the Yazidi suffering as genocide and declared August 3rd as a day of commemoration for the tragic event.

Kojo village, located in Sinjar, south of the Sinjar Mountains in Nineveh, is one of the disputed areas and is predominantly inhabited by Yazidis. The village gained international attention in 2014 due to the Yazidi genocide committed by ISIS.

https://shafaq.com/en/Iraq/Nineveh-dema ... idi-wounds

[Anthea]

Probe of Yezidi Genocide

On the tenth anniversary of the Yezidi genocide, Dindar Zebari, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Coordinator for International Advocacy, emphasized the urgent need for a unified mechanism to investigate international crimes during a special meeting held in Dublin, Ireland

The meeting, on September 10, included representatives from the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Government, Yazda Organization, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and various academics and human rights activists. Zebari reflected on the atrocities committed against the Yezidis, stating, what has been done against the Yezidis is genocide and an international crime by all standards.

He highlighted the KRG’s efforts in seeking justice, including the formation of a high ministerial committee in November to recognize the Islamic State’s crimes as genocide. Zebari also noted the ongoing collaboration with the United Nations Investigation Team to Investigate the Crimes of ISIS (UNITAD), which has been instrumental in gathering evidence against ISIS perpetrators.

Zebari provided statistics on the trials of ISIS criminals, mentioning that, according to the Kurdistan Regional Judicial Council, 498 ISIS members have been prosecuted from 2021 to March 2024, with an additional 123 individuals tried in the Kurdistan Region. He stressed that the KRG continues to rescue and rehabilitate Yazidi survivors, with 3,579 people rescued so far, although 2,579 remain missing.

Additionally, the KRG official called for the urgent creation of a unified international mechanism to investigate crimes and ensure justice for all victims, regardless of their religious, ethnic, or sectarian background. He also reiterated the importance of securing justice for ISIS criminals and compensating the victims and their families.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/860081

[Anthea]

Four Children abducted from Sharia Camp

The Independent Commission for Human Rights has condemned the kidnapping of four Yazidi children from a family in the Sharia camp in Duhok province and called for urgent security and legal measures

The ICHR released a statement reporting that unknown gunmen abducted the children from the camp. The children are from a family displaced from Sinjar and currently residing in a village near Koya district.

The abduction occurred after the family visited Duhok on September 5. The kidnappers, described as armed men, reportedly demanded money and documents for the children’s release.

The commission has urged legal and security authorities to intensify efforts to locate the kidnappers and bring them to justice. The statement stressed the importance of resolving disputes through legal channels rather than resorting to such criminal acts. They are closely monitoring the situation and have called for an immediate response from regional authorities.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/860202

[Anthea]

Woman describes relief of escape

A Yazidi woman who was enslaved by ISIS for two and a half years said escaping was a "feeling full of happiness" but also sadness, as she didn’t know what lay ahead

Yazidi woman Shireen Khero, 30, was just 19 and in her final year of school when ISIS attacked her village of Hardan in 2014 in Iraq.

Her father was one of thousands of men massacred by the terrorists for refusing to convert to Islam, while Shireen was one of many women abducted and enslaved.

In 2017, Shireen managed to escape from ISIS after a brutal two and half years and she fled to Duhok.

Yesterday, the Yazidi genocide survivor attended a Department of Foreign Affairs meeting in Dublin as she is asking for international help for the 2,600 women still being kept captive by ISIS.

Speaking to the Irish Mirror, Shireen explained that being enslaved by the terrorist group was so horrific that she believed death was a better option.

She said: "When I was in captivity I was not scared of death. I felt that death was my friend because it accompanied me in every moment.

"I was so scared, I was anxious, I never knew in the next moment what was waiting for us. It was so hard."

Shireen’s grandmother, mother and her two sisters were all captured when her town in the Sinjar District of Nineveh Governorate was attacked by ISIS on August 10, 2014.

Shireen recalled: "It’s hard to express what really happened but the feelings were fear, anxiety and sadness.

"On that day when they took us I couldn’t find a breath or oxygen, I felt the universe had left us in this situation and no one cared about what happened.

"I felt it wasn’t reality but it was our reality and when it happened I felt that time had stopped totally. We didn’t know what would happen to us at any moment, we were not just one or two - there were thousands of people so it was hard to accept this harsh reality."

The 30-year-old explained that except for her mother and young sister, all her family were separated while in captivity. For two-and-a-half years, she didn’t know if any of her family were dead or alive.

She added: "They constantly moved us. In the beginning, they took us to a school and after a few days they moved us to a jail, it was a continuous process of separating family members.

"They were taking boys from their mothers, they were keeping us in a situation of fear, worry and anxiousness of what would happen to us."

When Shireen finally managed to escape, she was overjoyed, and it didn’t feel like reality. However, she had no idea what her next move would be.

When she realised she was free, the Yazidi woman said it was "a feeling full of happiness but also sadness".

Shireen soon found out that her grandmother, mother, and sister had all managed to escape ISIS before her. Her other sister fled a year and a half after Shireen. She added: "So I felt I was lucky to have my family after all I’ve been through. Luckier than others, but it was so hard too."

Aged 22 when she escaped, Shireen has defied all odds and graduated with a business management degree from the American University of Kurdistan.

While Shireen said she is lucky to have escaped, there are still 2,600 women enslaved by ISIS.

Natia Navrouzov, the executive director of charity Yaza, joined talks yesterday in Dublin at the Department of Foreign Affairs. She says these women need international help because there are "no efforts to look for them".

She added: "A lot of these women are smuggled out of Iraq, they are in Syria, Turkey, different countries, so the effort must be international and not just left to the families."

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-n ... e-33639242

[Anthea]

UNITAD releases its most detailed report

Nearing its closure, the UN body investigating the Islamic State (ISIS) released a detailed report concluding there is sufficient evidence to believe the extremist group committed the gravest crimes of concern against groups in Iraq, particularly the Yazidis

“The report concludes that UNITAD has reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide were committed,” the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIS (UNITAD) said in a statement on Wednesday summarizing the 155-page redacted version of the public report.

UNITAD detailed its final project on Thursday - the "Digitization and Preservation of Da'esh-related Materials" consisting of "over 20 million pages, representing 445,000 case files."

According to UNITAD, the project was supported by 100 Iraqi consultants, adding the collaboration has resulted "in the creation of the world's largest centralized database of ISIS (Da'esh)-related court files and original documents."

UNITAD’s findings have been given to Iraqi and Kurdistan Region officials in recent weeks in large amounts of usable data as the body nears the end of its mandate.

Notably the report provides evidence that ISIS “committed genocide against the Yazidi religious group."

"The crimes committed against the Yazidis of Sinjar..." the report stated, "were committed with the intent to destroy them physically and biologically. Four features of those crimes are compelling manifestations of that intent."

Leaders from the Yazidi civil society have said the end of UNITAD's work will negatively impact the accountability for ISIS crimes and their pursuit of justice.

The report also details the rise, fall, and structure of ISIS, the extremists' attack on Shingal in 2014, ISIS' killings and executions, their slave trade, sexual slavery, and other forms of abuse including rape.

Additionally, the UN report documents investigations of violence against children including their forced conscription by ISIS, the destruction and pillaging of Yazidi cultural sites and public property.

On Tuesday, the UN investigatory team gave Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan “eight reports and packages of underlying evidence, including evidence originally collected by UNITAD,” its Acting Special Adviser Ana Peyro Llopis said in a statement.

The reports present “findings of acts committed” by ISIS from 2014 to 2017 “against victims from wide-ranging communities of Iraqi society, which UNITAD has reasonable grounds to believe amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in some cases, genocide.”

Zidan “thanked the team's staff for their efforts during their work period in Iraq,” he said in a statement after the final meeting with Llopis.

UNITAD has shared versions of its findings with local and federal officials across Iraq, including with the Kurdistan Regional Government via Dindar Zebari, coordinator for international advocacy, in late August.

UNITAD was established in 2017 to investigate crimes by ISIS. The investigative team has had a difficult relationship with the Iraqi government over various issues like information-sharing and Baghdad’s usage of capital punishment. Additionally, the United Nations’ Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI)has announced it will leave the country in 2025.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report in August expressed concern that ending UNITAD’s mission would leave a gap that Baghdad cannot adequately fill.

Thousands of Yazidi families are still unable to return to their homes because of lack of reconstruction and ongoing insecurity, mass graves are still being discovered and exhumed, and 2,596 Yazidis abducted by ISIS in 2014 are still missing, the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told Rudaw in an interview last month.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/120920241

[Anthea]

Justice for Yezidi Genocide Victims

Dr. Dindar Zebari, Kurdistan’s Coordinator for International Advocacy, emphasized the Kurdistan Government's (KRG) unwavering commitment to achieving justice for victims of the Yezidi genocide, during an international conference on genocide and crimes against humanity held in Erbil

The conference, co-organized by Salahaddin University, Northern Justice Watch (NJW), RABA organization, and Green Desert, brought together experts and advocates to discuss the ongoing efforts to address the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014.

In his opening remarks, Zebari highlighted the KRG's extensive initiatives to secure justice, protect human rights, and provide reparations for Yezidi victims. He stressed the importance of establishing a unified mechanism to investigate international crimes, ensuring the prosecution of ISIS criminals and compensation for victims, as cited by Kurdistan 24.

The KRG official pointed to the recognition by international bodies of the atrocities against the Yezidis as genocide, a crucial step in the pursuit of justice. He also detailed the KRG’s cooperation with the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIS (UNITAD), which has been instrumental in gathering evidence and conducting investigations.

Highlighting the plight of Yezidi survivors, Zebari noted that the Kurdistan Region continues to host over 730,000 internally displaced persons, including many Yezidis. The KRG provides monthly aid to over 3,500 rescued individuals and has facilitated psychological treatment for over 1,200 survivors in Germany.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/860655

[Anthea]

Nadia Murad steps down as Ambassador

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a joint statement, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced Murad’s decision to step down from her role as UNODC Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, concluding more than eight years of dedicated advocacy

Murad, a survivor of sexual violence and kidnapping by ISIS, became the first-ever survivor of atrocities to be appointed a UN Goodwill Ambassador in 2016.

During her time with UNODC, Murad played a critical role in raising awareness of human trafficking and advocating for the rights of survivors on the global stage. She addressed prominent international bodies, including the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, calling for justice and tangible support for trafficking survivors.

The joint statement highlights Murad’s ongoing commitment to advancing human rights. While stepping down from her formal role with UNODC, Murad emphasized her continued work to combat conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and human trafficking through broader advocacy efforts. "I will continue advocating for human rights issues and strengthening the fight against conflict-related sexual violence," Murad said, expressing gratitude for the support of the UNODC team.

UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly acknowledged Murad’s significant contributions. "With her survivor-centric approach, Nadia Murad has amplified the needs and voices of human trafficking survivors on the global stage. We are extremely grateful for her dedication and the profound impact she has had on survivors during her time with UNODC."

Murad will continue her advocacy work through Nadia’s Initiative, an organization dedicated to justice, human rights, and the dignity of survivors, particularly women and girls. As global challenges persist, including the displacement of over 110 million people, Murad urged continued action in the fight for a more just and equitable world.

Both UNODC and Murad expressed optimism about future collaboration in mobilizing efforts to combat human trafficking.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/36 ... f-advocacy

[Anthea]

Swedish Woman Charged with Genocide

Swedish authorities have charged a 52-year-old woman with genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious war crimes against Yazidi women and children during her time with the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, marking the first such trial in Sweden

Lina Laina Ishaq, a Swedish citizen, is accused of committing the crimes between August 2014 and December 2016 in Raqqa, the former ISIS capital. Senior prosecutor Reena Devgun confirmed this is the first case of ISIS crimes against Yazidis to be trialed in Sweden.

Ishaq is alleged to have detained several Yazidi women and children in her home, subjecting them to severe suffering, torture, and inhumane treatment, according to the Stockholm District Court.

The charges state that Ishaq treated the victims as slaves, with some being sold to ISIS militants, knowing they would face death or severe sexual abuse. Among the abuses, Ishaq is accused of molesting a 1-month-old baby to stop it from crying.

In 2014, ISIS militants stormed Yazidi villages in Iraq’s Sinjar region, abducting thousands of women and children, with many forced into sexual slavery and boys indoctrinated into IS ideology.

Ishaq, who denies the charges, had previously been convicted in Sweden for taking her 2-year-old son to ISIS-controlled Syria in 2014 under the pretense of a holiday in Turkey. She later fled Raqqa as ISIS collapsed and was arrested in Turkey before being extradited to Sweden in 2017.

Her trial is scheduled to begin on October 7, lasting approximately two months, with much of the proceedings held behind closed doors due to sensitive information.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/860978

[Anthea]

New Lalish road

Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Saturday reaffirmed his government's commitment to protecting the rights of Yazidis as he laid the symbolic foundation stone for a new road to the village of Lalish, the location of a Yazidi temple

Barzani said that thousands of people visit the area annually and the completion of the $20 million Shekhan-Lalish highway will ease travel for Yazidis and other visitors going to the mountain village of Lalish and its holy temple.

He noted the area's agricultural, tourism, and archaeological value, but added that “most significant of all, it is a beautiful example of the culture of coexistence in Kurdistan.”

Lack of reconstruction and ongoing insecurity has prevented many Yazidis from returning to their home regions. Thousands who fled the Islamic State (ISIS) when it attacked the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in 2014 are still living in camps or temporary accommodation.

Barzani reaffirmed the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) commitment to protecting Yazidi rights and providing services for the community.

“The only way to normalize the situation in the area is by implementing the Shingal agreement,” he said.

Baghdad and Erbil signed an agreement in 2020 to normalize the situation in Shingal, especially in terms of security, but the deal has yet to be fully implemented.

The camps where many Yazidis are living may soon be closed as the Iraqi government has prioritized returning displaced families to their homes.

In early September, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani symbolically laid the cornerstone for a housing complex in the war-torn Shingal district, carried out in collaboration with international organizations. The project had been stalled since 2021.

The Shekhan-Lalish highway was one of two major projects Barzani inaugurated on Saturday. He also opened the Slevana wheat factory in Zakho. The $200 million facility is part of the government's efforts to support local farmers through collaboration with private companies to modernize the agricultural sector.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/210920241

[Anthea]

Remove foreign armed groups from Sinjar

Shafaq News/ On Saturday, Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani reiterated his demand for the withdrawal of foreign armed groups from the Sinjar district stressing the importance of fully implementing the Erbil-Baghdad agreement

Speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the Shekhan-Lalish Road project, PM Barzani emphasized the KRG’s commitment to defending the rights of Yazidi citizens. “The Kurdistan Regional Government is committed to safeguarding and defending the rights of our Yazidi brothers and sisters,” he said, adding that the government is making every effort to provide services and alleviate the suffering that the community has endured.

We continue our efforts to normalize the situation in Sinjar. He said, understanding the need for foreign armed groups and militias to leave the area, insisting, The administration of the district must be in the hands of the original inhabitants of the region

The Erbil-Baghdad agreement, signed in 2020, aims to restore stability in Sinjar, which has been a battleground for various armed groups following its liberation from ISIS. Despite the agreement, tensions persist due to the presence of foreign militias, which continue to hinder efforts for the full return of displaced Yazidis.

https://shafaq.com/en/Kurdistan/Kurdish ... rom-Sinjar

[Anthea]

French ISIS female enslaved Yazidi teenager

A woman linked to the Islamic State group will be tried in France on "genocide" charges over allegedly enslaving a Yazidi teenager in Syria, a source close to the case said Tuesday

Sonia Mejri, a 35-year-old born in southern France, stands accused of aiding her then-husband -- a high-ranking member of the jihadist group -- to enslave and rape the teenager in spring 2015, when part of Syria and neighbouring Iraq was under ISIS rule, according to the investigation.

She is to be tried on charges of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" for allegedly enslaving, imprisoning, torturing, raping or enabling the rape of the girl, the document ordering the trial said.

The court is also to examine allegations that the couple converted, or attempted to convert, the teenager to Islam through acts such as "ablutions following the rapes".

Mejri's lawyer was not immediately available for comment. She has repeatedly denied the allegations.

The young Yazidi woman said she was held hostage for more than a month when she was 16, during which time she could not drink, eat or shower without Mejri's permission.

The teenager alleged Mejri was violent to her on two occasions and knew the husband was raping her.

Mejri's husband, Abdelnasser Benyoucef, was involved in founding a branch of ISIS specialised in external operations.

He has been sentenced in absentia over a failed attack in France in 2015 and an arrest warrant is out for him, although he is thought to have been killed in an air strike in 2016.

ISIS seized control of large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, before US-backed Syrian forces ousted them from their last patch of land in eastern Syria in 2019.

The Sunni extremist ISIS group attacked the Yazidi bastion of Sinjar in August 2014, killing more than 1,200 people, according to local authorities.

A further 6,400 Yazidis were abducted, around half of whom were rescued or managed to flee.

France launched an investigation in 2016 into genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria since 2012.

Other European countries are also prosecuting alleged ISIS members on similar charges.

Swedish prosecutors said last week they had brought "genocide" charges against a 52-year-old woman accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves at her home in Syria between 2014 and 2016.

German prosecutors said in April two suspected ISIS members had been arrested, accused of enslaving and sexually abusing a pair of Yazidi girls aged five and 12 in Syria and Iraq.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/36 ... i-teenager

[Anthea]

Yazidis build new Shingal

in America's Midwest

Shahab Bashar spends hours every day working on a 12-acre farm in Lincoln, Nebraska where he improves his English and plants the vegetables that he grew up eating in his hometown of Shingal. He is one of thousands of Yazidis who are calling the American city home. They are establishing a new Yazidi heartland in the heart of middle America

Bashar had to flee his Shingal home in northwestern Iraq a decade ago in the face of the Islamic State (ISIS) assault. Despite the eventual liberation of the district, he could not see a stable future there and chose Lincoln as a more fertile land to plant the seed of hope.

He used to work as a translator for the United States army and then as a teacher before the brutal ISIS attack in 2014.

“Before ISIS came, I had a stable life, working at a laboratory and teaching at a school close to my home,” Bashar reminisced with deep sorrow in his voice. “We enjoyed our lives.”

Like many others fleeing the radical group, he spent a week on top of the nearby Mount Shingal, suffering under the intense August sun with limited food and water and the constant fear of ISIS. He then lived in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Sulaimani province until returning to Shingal in 2016.

Bashar tried to resume his life as a school teacher. He received funds from various non-governmental organizations to run the school and tried to start a new life in his hometown.

“I opened the school and started from scratch,” Bashar recounted.

But Shingal was not the same. The infrastructure was in ruins, various armed groups were moving in, and most of the Yazidi population had not returned. Restoring the normalcy that he knew before ISIS was inconceivable.

ISIS committed genocide in Shingal. The terror group abducted 6,417 women and children, forcing a large number of them into sexual slavery and labor. So far, 3,581 have been rescued, Hussein Qaidi, head of the Office for Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Presidency, told Rudaw in August.

According to unofficial figures from Qaidi, between 120,000 and 130,000 Yazidis have left Iraq since ISIS swept through Shingal. Iraq has failed to provide the community with protection and prosperity and a huge number of Yazidis no longer consider the country home.

Bashar had been reluctant to make such a life-changing move, but finally decided that his best chance of creating a home again lay outside of the country.

The journey in pursuit of a better life was somewhat easier for those who had worked with the US army during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and for those sponsored by European countries, but many Yazidis had to take irregular routes, putting their fate at the mercy of the waves of the sea and snow-covered forests in search for a better life.

Lincoln, Nebraska, already home to thousands of Yazidis, became the favorite choice for those who used to work for the American army and were fleeing ISIS atrocities. Bashar was one of them.

He arrived in Lincoln along with his wife and daughter in 2017. The couple had two more daughters born in the US. In 2018, he joined Community Crops, a non-profit organization that supports local agriculture. He began working as a translator but soon found an unexpected love for farming. Today, he is responsible for 12 acres of farmland, in addition to providing translation services for Yazidi farmers.

“When I first came here, it was really difficult as I could not speak good English and I had to work at a factory for three to four months and also worked at markets,” Bashar said, stating that the Yazidi Cultural Center helped him improve his English and join Community Crops.

“I joined this job to improve my English. Then I started to love nature and soil and wanted to help my community to find the right seeds of vegetables we could not find in USA markets,” he told Rudaw English.

In addition to wanting to grow the familiar vegetables that are part of the northern Iraqi diet, Bashar wished that Nebraska’s plains had mountains like Shingal.

Bashar’s success story has been widely featured in US media. He has given many interviews about the tragedy he witnessed in Shingal and the start of a new life in Lincoln.

“We are a small Shingal here. We are building it and we have our freedom to talk and work and feel we are not second class, we feel we are home,” he said.

Lincoln is home to the largest community of Yazidis in the US, numbering about 3,500, according to unofficial figures Rudaw English obtained from the Yazidi Cultural Center - the most prominent Yazidi center helping immigrants start new lives in the US and integrate into the American community. The center is affiliated with the non-profit organization Yazda.

Ahmed Mastto, the director of the center, told Rudaw English that they offer Yazidis translation services and help them find jobs. The American government has been financially supporting the center since its establishment in 2017.

The first Yazidi family is believed to have moved to the city in the late nineties. They faced many challenges, primarily when learning English and finding jobs. Those who fled ISIS atrocities struggled with the additional challenge of overcoming the trauma they experienced.

Mastto was in the town of Khanasor, on the north side of Mount Shingal, when ISIS attacked. He was displaced to a camp in Duhok’s Zakho district before moving to the US along with his wife and four children in 2016. Working as a translator for the US army in 2004 paved his path of immigration to Nebraska.

His aunt and her family were kidnapped by ISIS. She was able to escape, but her husband and their son remain missing.

Asked why he chose to live in Lincoln, Mastto replied, “because the largest Yazidi community is here and we practice our religion freely and we do whatever we did back in Shingal.”

He said Yazidis are also treated with a lot of respect by the local community.

Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird told Rudaw English that they are “proud” to host the largest Yazidi community in the US.

"In Lincoln, Nebraska, we are proud to be home to the largest community of Yazidi refugees in the United States. Through years of collaborative efforts by local organizations and individuals, we have created strategies to ensure that refugees are fully included in our community's economic, social, civic, and cultural life,” she said.

“We believe that, by fostering a welcoming and inclusive community, we create new opportunities for everyone in our capital city,” added the mayor.

Community Crops has helped Yazidis wanting to farm

“Our nonprofit program has worked with New American families from all over the world in our garden program for many years. Many Yazidi were gardeners with us. As they asked for more and more land and we learned more about their backgrounds, we realized this community had many experienced farmers that might want to create new farm businesses here in Nebraska. From this, the Yazidi Farmers Project was born,” Megan McGuffey, Community Crops program coordinator, told Rudaw English.

Bashar has been working with them as a translator and interpreter since the early days of the project. It was through this program that he and his wife decided to become farmers.

Bashar has become “an integral part” of the organization, McGuffey said.

About ten Yazidis have participated in the Yazidi Farmers Project over several years.

Bashar said farmers from Shingal grow vegetables in large quantities, including several types of produce that are new to Lincoln markets such as varieties of pepper, eggplant, and cutting celery.

“We are trying to help farmers to sell their vegetables through Yazidi markets or Arab markets. We are building our relationship to sell to other American markets too,” he said.

McGuffey said that although farming requires extremely hard work and marketing the products is a challenge, Yazidi farmers have “shown real resilience in pursuing their farm business dreams.”

Some of the Yazidis, who used to farm on Mount Shingal before the ISIS attack, have transferred their experience to Lincoln.

“The knowledge and skill of the Yazidi farmers we work with is impressive. They are constantly experimenting to improve their farms and are always willing to learn new skills and ideas to improve their farm businesses,” McGuffey said, adding that a “bright” future awaits them.

Murad Ismail, a prominent Yazidi activist, told Rudaw English that the United States is one of the most hospitable countries and that American people respect Yazidi faith and culture, “something we lacked in our environment back home.”

He recently visited Bashar and other Yazidi farmers and was impressed by their work. He explained why most Yazidis prefer Lincoln to other American cities.

“The main reason people settled here is that when the first group of Yazidis came in the '90s, they were Yazidi Iraqis who became refugees in Syria. A group of them settled in Lincoln randomly by the resettlement agency; others were sent to other states, but the Lincoln group became a kind of attraction for them.

Lincoln makes sense as it is a small town, easier to live in than big cities, and it's economically doing well too. When new Yazidis arrived after 2007, it was natural for them to come to Lincoln because a large community was already here,” he stated.

He explained that preservation of the Yazidi culture and faith is one of the advantages of living where there is an existing community.

“There are weddings here every month, Yazidis have a cemetery where they bury their dead, and people come together all the time. In many ways, they have recreated the life they once had,” said Ismail, who co-founded Yazda

There are challenges as well, he noted, including how much Yazidis can integrate into American society and accept American norms.

Khalida Shamo was only a baby when ISIS attacked her home in Shingal. Her family fled and moved to Nebraska when she turned four.

Now 16, Shamo told Nebraska Public Media on the tenth anniversary of the genocide that she teaches her school peers about the massacre.

“It was really scary. Even though it didn’t impact me directly, it still did because it was my family… It’s hard hearing your grandma cry over the phone because she doesn’t want to leave the place that she grew up in,” she said.

Her grandmother finally joined them in the US, but her grandfather chose to stay in Shingal.

Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US State Department, said on the tenth anniversary of the genocide on August 3 that the survivors “bear the painful scars” of that catastrophic day.

“We urge continued implementation of the Yezidi Survivors’ Law and full application of the security, reconstruction, and administrative provisions of the 2020 Sinjar Agreement, in consultation with the communities that call Sinjar home,” he said in a statement

Iraq’s parliament passed the Yazidi Survivors Bill in 2021, after it languished in the legislature for two years. It offers reparations to the survivors of ISIS, but implementation has been criticized as flawed.

“Implementation of the law will need to be focused comprehensively supporting & sustainably reintegrating survivors,” Nadia Murad, one of the survivors of the genocide said in a post on X (then Twitter). She is a prominent Yazidi activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The 2020 agreement Miller referred to was signed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a bid to normalize the situation in Shingal, especially its security. Both sides have accused the other of not implementing it.

The presence of several armed groups, including ones linked to Baghdad and Erbil, has hindered efforts to restore life in the town, making many Yazidis sheltering in the Kurdistan Region reluctant to return to their homes, despite pressure from the Iraqi government

Bashar still considers Shingal his home, but does not plan to return.

“I see Lincoln as my second home after Shingal,” he said, adding that he prefers living in Lincoln. “I have a normal life now.”

He hopes for better lives for his relatives who have chosen to remain in Shingal or have not yet had a chance to leave.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/culture/26092024

[Anthea]

Yazidi culture is absent from Western museums

In a recent talk at the British Museum (BM), sitting between the two great Assyrian lamassu from Khorsabad, the Turkish writer Elif Shafak spoke about the role fiction can play in shedding light on otherwise forgotten moments of personal and historical trauma

Shafak’s recent novel There Are Rivers in the Sky explores questions of museum collecting through the story of the acquisition, by the BM, of remains from Nineveh, and the discovery of Assyrian culture thanks to George Smith (“King Arthur of the Slums and Sewers” in Shafak’s story), who decoded the cuneiform held at the museum, and discovered and translated into English The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Shafak intertwines this story with that of two contemporary women, one of whom is a young Yazidi who experiences the genocide by Islamic State (ISIS) of the Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar in 2014.

The Assyrian collection at the BM is largely the result of excavations by the 19th-century archaeologist Austen Henry Layard (whose 1849 book, Nineveh and its Remains: With an Account of a Visit to the Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil-Worshippers; and an Enquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians, plays a central part in Shafak’s novel).

It is justly famous, heralded by the great lamassu from Khorsabad, despite being crammed into claustrophobic galleries in between Ancient Egypt and the Parthenon sculptures.

A poignant absence

Evidence of the other cultures mentioned in the title of Layard’s book, the Chaldaeans and the Yezidis (an alternative spelling of Yazidi), is much harder to find. The Yazidi people, in particular, are virtually invisible in museums in the West, an absence all the more poignant in light of their recent history

Following the massacre of 2014, some 200,000 Yazidis still live in refugee camps in Kurdistan, unable to return to their destroyed homes. Hundreds of the women and children who were abducted and enslaved by Isis are still missing. Although many of the Yazidi shrines have been reconstructed, living Yazidi culture remains in a fragile state.

Museums in Iraqi Kurdistan are reported to be collecting Yazidi artefacts, notably the Slemani Museum in Sulaymaniyah, as well as the Ethnographic Museum at the Erbil Citadel, according to Sébastien Rey, the BM’s curator for Ancient Mesopotamia.

Outside of the Kurdish region it is a different story. A search on the BM database brings up a sole item, a photograph of a Yazidi man standing in front of the shrine of Shaikh ‘Adi ibn Mosāfer. It comes from the page of an album donated to the museum in 2012.

Noorah Al-Gailani, the curator of Islamic Collections at the BM, also points to two 18th-century drawings of Yazidis, and a Safavid metalwork peacock, that may well have been used by the Yazidi to represent Melek Taûs, the “Peacock Angel”. The lack of Yazidi material, Al-Gailani says, can in part be explained by the closed nature of the Yazidi community. When Layard wrote of his time with the Yazidis, he found them “naturally suspicious of strangers, and fearful of betraying the secrets of their faith”, an understandable characteristic in the face of a long history of persecution.

Historically, museum collections of artefacts from the Near East have not been acquired with the intention of representing minority groups, but rather acquired piecemeal and on the basis of individual interest—and naturally the spectacular nature of the finds from Nineveh, Nimrud and Khorsabad drew the attention more than artefacts from the Yazidi, or other ethnic-religious groups such as the Mandeans or the Arab Jews.

Any project collecting evidence of Yazidi material culture should begin with how the Yazidi represent themselves, suggests Paul Collins, the assistant keeper in the department of Middle East at the BM. The first answer to this question from the Yazidi is of course unlikely to be “by artefacts on display in the British Museum”—displays that very few Yazidis would have the opportunity to see for themselves.

A richer form of identification might be given by intangible heritage—music, food, storytelling, the sort of thing that cannot be collected and preserved by museums and might for those thousands of Yazidis still living in refugee camps and away from their still ruined homeland of Sinjar be the most meaningful carrier of their tradition and culture.

Compared with the urgent ongoing need for humanitarian aid and political representation, museum collecting might seem a trivial issue. The BM in particular has little ethical credibility left in the light of its renewed sponsorship deal with the oil company BP, which recently announced the development of new oil and gas fields in Kirkuk, Iraq. And yet with their powerful cultural and political reach, museums have a moral duty for such representation.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/09 ... rn-museums