Yazidi women fear returning to devastated and brutal land

It has been 10 years since Islamic State militants attempted to exterminate the Yazidi people in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. They massacred thousands of men and raped and enslaved girls and women. Now survivors face new fears as the Iraqi government plans to close the tent camps where they live in other parts of the country, encouraging them to return to the places they fled.

Several Yazidi women who survived the tragedy and are living in refugee camps have travelled to the UK to take part in a series of choral performances, aimed at showcasing their cultural heritage and highlighting the plight of their community, a long-standing religious and ethnic minority.

Tears silently rolled down Amira’s cheeks as she told the BBC about the horrific brutality committed by the rebels when they captured the ancestral homeland of the Yazidi people in 2014. A decade has passed but the pain of she is still intact.

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of violence

Amira tried to flee to the mountains when men in her community were shot dead and women and girls were raped and enslaved.

But her two sisters were among those put to work in the household of Islamic State (IS) fighters, who declared the Yazidi people were devil worshipers.

Unlike many other slaves, Amira’s sisters were not raped because they were married, she said.

However, one sister, whose husband was killed by rebels, was beaten daily.

And she received an unspeakably cruel threat.

“She gave birth 15 days before she was captured, and they told her: ‘We will kill your baby and force you to eat it,'” Amira said.

Her voice lowered to almost a whisper as she described how her other sister, Delal – who was pregnant when she was captured – lost her infant daughter at just five months old to her. She cannot produce milk to feed her baby. Delal tried to commit suicide but was stopped by her four-year-old son. “Her child is only four years old,” Amira said. “And he said to her, ‘Mom, please don’t kill us. Let’s get out of here.'”

Then, when she took a tomato from the refrigerator to feed her child, she and her two surviving children were locked in their room for a week as punishment, with no food and only a small bottle of water. and milk cartons.

The Iraqi government’s plan to close the camps where tens of thousands of Yazidis have been living since 2014 is a terrifying prospect for many of them.

Limited services currently provided in the camps will be cut at the end of July, with subsidies for their return to the Sinjar region, where the massacre took place.

“The situation is very dangerous,” Vian Dakhil, the only Yazidi deputy in Iraq’s parliament, told the BBC. “There are a lot of armed groups there and the Iraqi government forces are weak.”

Much of the town of Sinjar remains in ruins, she said. “There are no homes, no schools, no hospitals, nothing.”

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) echoed its concerns, saying the camps should not be forced to close. Farha Bhoyroo, the regulator, said: “No one should be forced to return to a place where they could be at risk of irreparable harm or be deprived of access to basics such as water, healthcare health, housing and employment to help them continue a decent life”. spokesman for the agency in Iraq.

The agency said it was concerned that some of those displaced from Sinjar may have no choice but to remain in decommissioned refugee camps.

Hadiya, 28, who also took part in the choir’s visit organized by the charity Amar Foundation, told the BBC that, before 2014, she had “everything – including a very big house”.

Currently she and her family live in a tent only 4m long and 3m wide, “like prisoners”. It is very hot in summer and cold in winter. But at least there, she felt safe.

Hadiya is also still haunted by horrifying memories – including what happened to her cousin, Ghazal.

Ghazal was taken captive at the age of eight and forced into marriage two years later. When she was rescued in 2020, aged 14, Hadiya said she was raising the two children she had left behind – and had been brainwashed into thinking that Yazidis were “bad people”.

Ghazal, now 18, remains confused and withdrawn. Her sister, now 19, is among hundreds of women and girls still missing.

“Nobody asked for them,” Zahra Amra, the Amar Foundation’s office manager in Dohuk, complained bitterly. She was also in the UK with the singers, acting as a translator.

“No one helped us find our sisters. Too many Isis fighters have been released from prison. When IS came, no one helped us and now they want us to go back to Sinjar.”

In August 2014, Zahra lost her classmates and friends. Her grandmother was shot dead because she was too weak to climb Mount Sinjar, where tens of thousands of Yazidis fled as IS advanced.

But most of all, she said, she lost the future she and her friends had planned, and the collective grief and sense of abandonment took a deep toll on her.

“We don’t feel safe,” she said. “And we don’t trust anyone.”

The Yazidi Women’s Peace Choir can be heard performing on BBC Radio 3’s Music Planet, available on BBC Sounds.