Despite ISIS defeat in Iraq, more than 2,800 Yazidi women have been missing for 7 years. Activists and protesters in Iraq have raised their voices calling on the government to find and rescue them.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in different Iraqi states such as Basra, Sinjar, and Snuny to call for the rescue of thousands of missing Yazidis.
Demonstrators in Basra raise awareness of the 2,800 Yezidi women that remain missing 7 years since the genocide.#SaveYazidisKidnapped#انقذوا_الايزيديات_المختطفات pic.twitter.com/KRWYobGtSY
— Iraq Tweets ?? (@Iraq_Tweets) May 25, 2021
People carried banners that had pictures of Yazidi women, whose destiny is still unknown and read “If you can’t remove injustice then tell everyone about it.”
During ISIS attacks and control of several areas, they tried to kill the Yazidi minority community in Iraq and take women and children as captives to sell them as slaves.
Furthermore, a social media campaign kicked off under the hashtags #Rescue_Yazidis_Kidnapped #RescueYazidisKidnapped and #انقذوا_الايزيديات_المختطفات”.
The continued enslavement of Yazidi women and children is unacceptable. A multilateral task force must be immediately established to locate and rescue them.
— Nadia's Initiative (@nadiainitiative) May 24, 2021
#RescueYazidisKidnapped
#انقذوا_الايزيديات_المختطفات pic.twitter.com/KQ8sddsB7x
The families of the Yazidis are now seeking justice for missing members, especially kids and women, who were taken to serve as slaves while men and eldery people were immediately being shot and buried in shallow graves, years after the war with ISIS ended.
According to media sources, the Iraqi authorities found 82 mass graves across Sinjar. 6,000 women and children are believed to be kidnapped by the Islamic state, while 2800 Yazidis are still missing.
A Yazidi woman survivor shared her story with ISIS on Twitter saying: “When an ISIS man would force me into a room with him, I could hear my children screaming & crying outside the door. He forced 2 of them to stand outside barefoot in snow until he finished with me.”
When ISIS man would force me into room with him, I could hear my children screaming & crying outside the door. He forced 2 of them to stand outside barefoot in snow until he finished with me.” Yazidi woman survivor of captivity#RescueYazidisKidnapped#انقذوا_الايزيديات_المختطفات pic.twitter.com/ZfbgQ5HShB
— Yazidi الايزيدية (@Ezidi2) May 23, 2021
Yazidis are an endogamous and mostly Kurmanji-speaking ethnoreligious group, indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia. The majority of them are living in the Middle East in the disputed territories of Northern Iraq, primarily in the Nineveh and Dohuk governorates.
