What interest does this organization have to stop us? Antonio Russo Merenda It is our understanding that the filmmakers worked as professionals as always, treating the participants with all needed respect in this complex situation. All of this has actually happened to us – it is about our real lives. Family members who managed to escape have been glued to their television Sabaya is a Swedish production following Swedish law and per Swedish law: written, verbal and filmed consent are equally valid. After outlining their situation, they berate the lack of reaction or action by international institutions and states, accusing them of effectively supporting Erdoğan’s imperialism. Tens of thousands of Yazidis became stranded without food or water on Mount Sinjar after IS swept into nearby towns and villages, killing men and boys, and raping and enslaving women and girls. Female survivors of sexual slavery have been shattered, with many experiencing suicidal thoughts, and intense feelings of rage interspersed with periods of deep . Then Hogir accompanied us to the Syrian-Iraqi border where he gave us his phone number and told us to contact him if we had any questions or concerns. "The security situation has changed for the better in the Sinjar area. Lastly, we would like to underscore the importance of the subject of the film and its role to create needed awareness of the situation for the Yazidi women. It is truly remarkable how swiftly and successfully the survivors, the community and civil society mobilized for the YSL, which directly influenced lawmakers in introducing certain amendments to . (Adam Ferguson/The New York Times) August 3 is the day the Yazidi community marks as the start of their genocide. The US Consul General in Erbil, Robert Palladino, assured the Yazidi community of the continued support of the United States. So she was worried when she was in Syria and we did not show her face. The sun, moon, stars, air, water, earth, and fire are sacred elements for Yazidis. Found insideThe Home That Was Our Country is a deeply researched, personal journey that shines a delicate but piercing light on Syrian history, society, and politics. Duhok, Iraq - In happier times, Ammar . It’s the main topic I work on. The Șengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly predict a further Yazidi massacre, and a delegation of Yazidi women told the Iraqi Prime Minister that the KDP-Iraqi ‘alliance’ was in fact a betrayal that would allow Turkey to take control of Șengal via the KDP. A Yazidi artist's brush with death. In its aftermath, no free Yazidis remained: the community had all been displaced, captured, converted, or killed. Thousands of Iraqi troops and KDP Peșmerga are being dispatched to ‘protect’ the area and to force the Yazidi’s own self protection units to disband. Richly illustrated, with accompanying maps, photographs and illustrations, this pioneering book will have strong appeal to all those with an interest in the culture of the Kurds, as well as the wider region. A definitive reference volume on cults, major fundamentalist religions, and non-Christian faiths includes coverage of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, and Hinduism, outlining their major beliefs while offering advice on countercult ... "A memoir of Nadia Murad's time as a captive of the Islamic State, her escape, and her human rights activism"-- They've been labeled "heretics." "Polytheists." "Satan worshippers." By November 2015, over 5,000 Yazidi men had been killed by ISIS. No one forced me to consent to anything. • Autonomous security, integrated with the Iraqi state "What happened to the Yazidis is nothing but genocide," Rahman said. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! And this is how it shows up in the film. The Central Union of Yazidi Associations has put out an international appeal. "I was really shocked by the destruction of the family unit through ISIS's attack on the Yazidi community," says Nicolette Waldman, the researcher who interviewed Yazidi women and children for the extensive report. • Support for democracy and autonomous self-organisation. This tale correlates in some ways to a story in the Sufi religion. The book includes an historical introduction by Andrej Umansky, research fellow at the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, University of Cologne, Germany, and historical and legal advisor to Yahad-In Unum. “I happily signed the consent forms by my own free will. • Sanctions against those who attack them However, the ultimately suicidal actions of the KDP are harder to comprehend, even though this is not the first time that the KDP has attacked other Kurds. The response from the women whom we feature in the film has been filled with gratitude and appreciation for exposing the atrocities from which they have suffered. After successfully conquering the Yazidi areas of Iraq in August, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, summarily executed hundreds of Yazidi men over the age of 14 and took hundreds of women as hostages. So that means for us that she was liberated. "All of us, internationally, by law, are obliged to prevent genocide.". But I do not have to listen to them or anyone else. The word Yazidi means 'the servant of the creator'. He even let us try filming with his camera. As The Kite Runner and The Swallows of Kabuldid for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, this slim, profound novel illuminates the plight of those living under the Islamic State as well as the spirit of the Yazidi people. I gave him my consent there and then, and I didn’t witness any of the other girls objecting to being filmed during the whole film process. Rahman maintains that what the Yazidis went through should be considered a genocide. Accounts have since emerged of the women's treatment at sex slavery markets, their suffering in the homes of their new "owners" and their efforts to escape their plight -- from reaching out to relatives via hidden mobile phones to slashing their own wrists. Rather than respect local sentiment, the State Department has subordinated Yazidi concerns to the same powerful interests which precipitated Sinjar's . The woman who is the leader of the organization and her team have tried to contact us girls that are in the film telling us not to sign any consents, not to participate in the film, not to let Hogir film us, and to try to convince us not to participate in this project. I am here to support the crew, Hogir and Antonio. The Yazidis have been grossly misrepresented and dehumanized. "What happened to the Yazidis is nothing but genocide," Rahman said. "Yazidis believe that they were the first people on earth," he told SBS. However, the PKK and the YPG and YPJ have helped the community in Șengal to establish their own self-defence forces and their own autonomous democratic structures. The Huffington Post spoke with Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan region's representative in the U.S., about the actions of ISIS and the current status of the Yazidis. They have targeted Maxmur refugee camp, home to families who escaped from Turkish persecution in the 1990s; and they have also targeted Șengal, claiming that the Yazidi self-defence forces are synonymous with the PKK, in the same way as they make no distinction between the PKK and the YPG/YPJ. "Genocide internationally has legal obligations on everybody," she said. I have happily signed the consent forms by my own free will. Attached is a statement from the Swedish Film Institute. • Recognition of the structures built up by the Yazidis themselves Found insideIn the face of inhuman suffering, this powerful work of nonfiction offers a counterpoint to Daesh’s genocidal extremism: hope, as ordinary people risk their own lives to save those of others. Joey Hood, of the US Bureau for Near Eastern Affairs, explained: The trauma has rippled through families even after remaining relatives were reunited. The U.N. report argued that the Islamic State's actions constituted a genocide because of their focus on the Yazidis' religious identity. The Yazidis' MP in the Iraqi parliament, Vian Dakhil, said on Saturday: "We have one or two days left to help these people. The jihadi mercenaries fighting under the Turkish flag include former ISIS fighters. • Physical reconstruction, with the help of international donors Turkish forces are targeting regions of Iraq where the PKK has been based for 40 years, and these attacks are making life impossible for everyone who lives there. We are finding the graves of their mothers still. After what has happened to the Yazidi women, I decided to stop singing until I take revenge for them Khider, whose chin and cheeks are marked with the tiny dark-blue tattoos distinctive to the . A genocide against the Yazidis has been declared almost unanimously, by everyone . In Sinjar, Yazidi women and girls have long sought a life with . Keep in mind, there are only about 650,000 Yazidis in all of Iraq to begin . Their religion has elements of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. Statement from the main female protagonist of the film (translated from Kurdish): For as long as I have known Hogir I have thought of him as my older brother. Found insideIn this profoundly important book, Christina Lamb shines a light on some of the darkest parts of the human experience—so that we might find a new way forward. "Sabaya" producer Antonio Russo Merenda has responded to a bombshell article published on Monday in The New York Times claiming that many Yazidi women And these are at least two stories that this film dealt with very honestly, very ethically and me, myself, I would never accept to be part of a story or making a story where women are getting oppressed again. It is a film about the reality of what we have been through. Mazen (right), 13, and his brother Mezban in a camp for displaced Yazidis in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Mazen was . With extraordinarily vivid first-hand reporting from on the ground in northern Iraq, a young journalist chronicles the persecution and resistance of Yazidi women caught up in the war with Islamic State. It also says she “didn’t witness any of the other girls objecting to being filmed during the whole film process,” and received two copies of the consent form, one in English and one in Arabic. Yazidis, and internet postings of ISIL, have reported summary executions that day by ISIL militants, leading to 200,000 civilians fleeing Sinjar, of whom around 50,000 Yazidis were reportedly escaping to the nearby Sinjar Mountains. An estimated 7,000 women and girls have been made sex slaves. Nobel laureate Nadia Murad writes that her people are still waiting for action on bringing . Their religion has elements of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. The Turkish newspaper Hürriyet conducted interviews with some Yazidis in the region in 2007. When the 21 Yazidis had made it back to northern Iraq, one of the teens, named Salim, said that he was happy to be back with his family. Found insideIn this book, Sebastian Maisel transmits and analyzes the Yezidi perspective on Syria’s policies towards ethnic and religious minorities. Since 2003, roughly 100,000 Yazidis have left. ISIS has been defeated thankfully. I feel that the making of this film is important for all of us that have been rescued and for the girls that are still kidnapped, so that the rest of the world can see what has happened to us Yazidis. ISIS killed male Yazidis even if they had agreed to convert -- in contrast to its treatment of other religious minorities, whom the group has instead forced to convert or to pay special taxes. ©2021 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. In its aftermath, no free Yazidis remained: the community had all been displaced, captured, converted, or killed. "I was really shocked by the destruction of the family unit through ISIS's attack on the Yazidi community," says Nicolette Waldman, the researcher who interviewed Yazidi women and children for the extensive report. And, none of these people have the right to tell me to not participate in this film, or not sign the consent form — they are not my boss. From our point of view they have handled both the filming and the follow-up for Sabaya in a correct and professional way and that the participants have given their consent, written or verbal, which has the same status according to Swedish law. Now, the Yazidis are fearful that all they have achieved is being put under threat by the very forces who abandoned them in 2014. Found insideThis is the extraordinary tale of how a few American-Yazidis in Washington, DC, mobilized a small, forgotten office in the American government to intervene militarily in Iraq to avert a devastating humanitarian crisis. I read the information in the consent forms and signed them. No one forced me to consent to anything,” the statement reads. • A no-fly zone How many Yazidis have left Iraq? In 2018, the PKK very publicly withdrew from the area, as their help was no longer needed. The adoption of this law would not have happened if it weren't for the tireless advocacy by Yazidi survivors, as well as civil society organizations. Part of HuffPost Politics. The producer of 'Sabaya' says that the Yazidi women have agreed to stay in the film 8 min read. Statement from The Swedish Film Institute: To whom it may concern The law's passage of the law is an acknowledgement that what happened to Yazidi women and girls was real and deserves recognition and compensation, but pressing needs continue to face the community. Mainly two stories that I was there for two women, ___ and ___ [names redacted]. As a result of the mass killings by ISIS, more than 400,000 Yazidis are now living as internally displaced persons in Iraq's northeastern Kurdistan region. Rahman underscored the importance of this recognition by referring to a prominent Yazidi political leader, the Iraqi parliamentarian Vian Dakhil, who said in Washington earlier this year that the Yazidis' suffering should be classified as a genocide. Since then, the genocide against the Yazidi minority group has continued. This book will teach students about Iraq and the Yazidis, as well as the violence the Yazidis have faced at the hands of ISIS. They have been responsive to the objections from a couple of participants with small parts in the film and immediately made the necessary adjustments. I’m based in Berlin. Yazidi women protect all these sacred elements. Throughout history, the Yazidis have suffered from systematic destruction, deprivation of their religious and socioeconomic rights, and other human rights violations. “So she stays with niqab. Answer (1 of 6): They are everywhere. A total of 3,476 survivors have returned from IS imprisonment, according to Hussein al-Qadi, director of the Office of Kidnapped Yazidis - funded by the Kurdish Regional Government, or KRG, which runs the semi-autonomous Kurdish part of northern Iraq. Iraq's Sinjar Agreement Is Doomed to Fail. We have pictures of his father just agonizing over his child's body. Regarding the film Sabaya, the producer and director have a long experience working with documentaries and their ethical compass has never been questioned before. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature. Found inside – Page 23This is a repeat of what has happened to the Yazidis and Christians in northern Iraq—whose plight I raised through questions and interventions in ... Seven years ago, ISIS killed and kidnapped Yazidis in Sinjar, in what UN investigators called a genocide. Found insideThis work will encourage the public to look critically at the post-colonial period, recognizing the injustice and impracticality of states that were created by Great Powers, and offering a new perspective on sovereignty and statehood. Over 200,000 Șengal Yazidis are displaced within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, around 10,000 are in Rojava in . Israel has pulled out. Some Yazidi community members have cautioned against overstating the bill's importance. "There are women and girls who are being held as sex slaves or sold in the open markets," Rahman said. They comment his posts with: “Well done, brother!”. Six years on, just 120,000 out of the original 500,000 Yazidis still live in, or have returned to, their devastated homeland. A relative had just phoned If you could have the Kurdistan Regional Government, the federal government in Baghdad, and Turkey working together with advice and support from the United States and other coalition countries, you could see where maybe a place like Sinjar could be cleared out of militias, including the PKK, and you could put a civilian administration in there that would work for the people and be accepted by the people so that Yezidi IDPs, victims of genocide could actually go home, which they can’t do safely and voluntarily right now. Knox Thames, former U.S. Special Advisor for Religious Minorities at the State Department, and co-author of the letter said: "Seven years have passed, but the international community still has not organized a search for the 2,763 missing Yazidi women and children. A common destiny with the Jews is a recurring theme in the Yazidis' discourse. Guevara Namer, a Kurdish female filmmaker who is now based in Germany and worked alongside Hirori during part of the shoot, said one of the women had “asked early to not be in the film” and had agreed to be in the film at the condition that her face was covered. Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter, Senior Foreign Affairs Reporter, HuffPost. How many Yazidis have left Iraq? I have happily signed the consent forms by my own free will. The con- When fighters from the Islamic State (IS) attacked the Yazidi communities in northern Iraq in August 2014, they took many of their victims captive. The Yazidis have been a hunted people for centuries, but the brutality of ISIS tops them all. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Found insideIn mobile training camps, the captured children were drugged, indoctrinated, and taught to shoot Kalashnikovs, plant explosives, and handle suicide vests. They are the intended products of the terrorist factory. What has happened? This is from the first installment in The Huffington Post's new "Ambassadors Unplugged" series, which will interview prominent diplomats on important global issues. These texts have offered a more detailed insight into the beliefs, observances, and background of the faith. I feel that the making of this film is important for all of us that have been rescued and for the girls that are still kidnapped, so that the rest of the world can see what has happened to us Yazidis. This is happening at the same time that Turkey has increased its attacks on Kurds everywhere: in Turkey itself, where the arrest and imprisonment of Kurdish politicians and activists continues without restraint; in northern Syria, where the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights has recorded Turkey’s continued and escalating breaches of the ceasefire agreement; and in northern Iraq, where they have coordinated attacks with the government of Iran. Almost a year later, hundreds of thousands of Yazidis have fled their historic homes in northwestern Iraq to escape what many argue is a genocide perpetrated by the Islamic State. Found insideThis book diversifies the literature on Kurdish Studies by offering close analyses of subjects which have not been adequately researched, and in particular, by highlighting the Kurds' relationship to the Yazidis. Found inside“This is the book I’ve been waiting for—only it’s richer, deeper, and more intriguing than I could have imagined. Found insideThis question is at the core of the multi- and interdisciplinary field of perpetrator studies, a developing field which this book assesses in its full breadth for the first time. What is the oldest religion? Their appeal ends with a list of concrete demands – both immediate and long term – for which they seek international support. A genocide happened on our watch. How can human beings kill or brutalise multitudes of other human beings? Focusing particularly on genocide, Erwin Staub explores the psychology of group aggression. "We were many [Yazidi in Baghuz], but I don't know what has happened to others," he said. A totally 74 edicts and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Media! ; Rahman said on bringing Victims Demographic Documentation Project will play a significant number of Christians dropped 1.5! There were others present with me when i signed them Variety Media, LLC making! Desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you beliefs,,! 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