“We are being slaughtered — our entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth,” said Vian Dakhil, a female member of the Iraqi parliament, describing the Yazidi people’s recent massacre and enslavement by the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as ISIS or ISIL. Although this minority group has only recently garnered world attention, the Yazidis have been subject to a history of persecution, their roots dating back thousands of years to the Mesopotamian era. Most recently, they have become the target of IS because of their ancient religious practices, derived from Zoroastrianism, which IS believes is incompatible with their Islamic State and condemns as “devil-worship.” The Yazidi’s misery began when IS seized Sinjar, a semiautonomous northern region of Iraq and a Yazidi safe-haven, which resulted in the displacement, deaths and enslavement of thousands of Yazidis and has left the future of this minority in question.
For the Yazidi women, IS poses additional threats, such as becoming victim to the sex slave trade, or suffering forced apostasy as well as rape, torture and death. Initial controversy over the accuracy of the brutal accounts of the trafficking of Yazidi women were settled in the fourth issue of Dabiq, an IS written and sponsored English newsletter. IS disturbingly confirms and justifies its trafficking of the Yazidi women as “khums” or “spoils of war.” A perturbing video recently surfaced on the Internet, showing IS militants laughing as they barter over the sale of kidnapped Yazidi women.
Sexual enslavement by IS jihadists is one of the worst fates Yazidi women face. However, even escape does not provide salvation for Yazidi women, as these atrocities have profound implications beyond physical enslavement. Often rape victims’ “honor” has been “tainted” and their families and homes destroyed. Talal Haskany, a displaced Yazidi, declared that there will be no stigma against women who have been raped by IS militants and that the Yazidi men would be honored to wed them. However,c with a strongly embedded culture of shame and stigmatization against women who have been raped, regardless of circumstance, the marriage prospects of women who have escaped from enslavement remain unclear. Jan, a 19-year-old Yazidi escapee who lost some of her family members in the conflict, explained that irrespective of a marriage, the coming years seem bleak. “Without my family and my mother and father, I have no idea what the future will be,” she said. “I don’t think I can live like that.”
IS’s treatment of the endangered Yazidis exemplifies the group’s heinous deeds, which they justify through their religious ideology. Sexual and ethnic violence is nothing new — it is often prevalent in regions of conflict — but some scholars argue that for IS, the trafficking of Yazidi women is part of a larger goal to construct their ideal state. Ariel Ahram, professor and author of “Proxy Warriors: The Rise and Fall of State-Sponsored Militias,” argues that IS’s sexual and ethnic violence is equally part of state-making as it is war-making. He says a key component of state power lies in the ability to manipulate sexual and ethnic identity, which IS has demonstrated in its treatment of the Yazidi minority. For IS, the captivity and subjugation of the Yazidi women may be statecraft, making it crucial that we no longer regard the ethnic cleansing of the Yazidis with apathy.
As many Yazidis look to the U.S. for support, continuing air strikes against IS and sending arms to the Peshmerga forces (the Kurdish army) fighting IS advances in Sinjar is essential for the immediate future of the Yazidis. Currently, several NGOs and U.N. organizations like the U.N. Refugee Agency have built refugee camps for displaced Yazidis and are delivering food, clothes and household items. The U.N. and other Western powers should develop more refugee camps, send more resources and support women who have escaped. However, for the hundreds of women still in captivity and for the Yazidis still under attack, a sufficient solution to protect this minority from genocide has yet to be developed. One of the main reasons President Obama decided to execute air strikes against IS was for the protection of women, children and religious minorities. This mission and greater humanitarian efforts by NGOs and other governments are imperative to help the Yazidis survive the current crisis.
Anita Kapyur is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in health sciences and policy studies. She is currently an intern for Marwa Shalaby, postdoctoral fellow and director of the Baker Institute’s Women and Human Rights in the Middle East Program.