Shafaq News / Yazidi survivors are still plagued by the specter of "physical assault" and "rape", due to what they endured after ISIS invaded Sinjar on August 3, 2014.
Iraq recently commemorated the eighth anniversary of the genocide that demised thousands of Yazidis by ISIS. The terrorist organization killed and abducted countless Yazidis from areas of Nineveh during its invasion of northern and northwestern Iraq in 2014.
In one of the biggest crimes against humanity committed in Iraq, ISIS kidnapped over 6,000 women and executed about 1,200 Yazidis in a series of field executions. In addition, thousands of female victims have gone missing up until now.
"I was 17 years old when ISIS took control of Sinjar. They took 13 members of my family, executed the men, including my father and brothers, and held me, my mother, and my sisters as slaves," recalled Hala, a Yazidi survivor.
"After that, we were moved to a school, then to Badush prison, where we stayed for about nine days, before we were taken to Tal Afar, where they separated us (me, my sister, and my little brother) from our mother, and sent us to Mosul."
"I was forced to go to Mosul with the militant who bought me. He took me with him wherever he went in Mosul and Syria and brutally assaulted and raped me repeatedly. A year later, he sold me to another militant, and then to a third. When the security forces entered Mosul, I ran away and sought refuge with them, but even then, the suffering did not end," Hala continued.
"Sinjar is still unstable; assassinations occur from time to time, in addition to a blatant government failure to address this situation, which makes us fear that the 2014 scenario will be repeated."
The district of Sinjar (115 kilometers west of Nineveh) is witnessing a difficult humanitarian situation, with more than 70% of its residents still living outside the city in temporary camps and housing complexes because of the control of armed factions over the city, which obstructs Baghdad's efforts to begin reconstruction and rehabilitation operations.
In this regard, MP Mahma Khalil of Sinjar stressed, "even though eight years have passed since the Yazidi genocide, a tragic situation still prevails in the district, all due to political conflicts as well as outlaw forces in Sinjar hindering the return of displaced people, reconstruction, and compensation of citizens."
Khalil, who is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (K.D.P.), confirmed to Shafaq News agency, "We seek to implement the agreement signed in 2020 between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (K.R.G.) with the participation of the United Nations," attributing the reason for the non-implementation to "the lack of governmental credibility and real national will to address the issue of Sinjar and its people."
In 2020, the Iraqi parliament recognized what the Yazidi component had been subjected to as "genocide". Accordingly, it passed a law to bring justice to the victims known as the "Yazidi Genocide Act".
One of the most significant features of the mentioned law is the provision of financial and moral privileges to help female victims reintegrate into society.
Financially, it provides them with a retirement income, residential land, employment priority, and other benefits associated with the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the stricken areas.
However, the law has so far not been implemented. Mustafa al-Kadhimi's government failed to enforce the Sinjar agreement signed with Erbil two years ago, where P.K.K. militants influence blocked the agreement and clashed with Iraqi army forces more than once.
So far, families of the missing victims are waiting for the excavation of the seven recently discovered mass graves in Sinjar, hoping to find their missing loved ones and family members diminished in the eighth year of the genocide.
Samia Shangali, a women's rights activist specializing in Yazidi women's rights, stated that Yazidi women continue to suffer the psychological and physical trauma they have endured, in addition to the existence of thousands of widows who are denied access to their "most fundamental rights."
"After eight years of the genocide, neither the international community nor the governments have taken the Yazidi situation seriously. Moreover, despite our repeated requests for their release—all in vain—about 3,000 Yazidi women remain captive in the al-Hol camp and other areas."
"The Yazidi community refers to the survivors as saints. Despite the numerous forms of cruelty that Yazidi women experienced in 2014, they have emerged as the symbol of humanity and world peace.," she concluded.
