DUHOK – Kurdish Region – Yezidi leaders in Iraqi Kurdistan want an internationally-backed safe haven to help the devastated community return to their homes, once the areas have been cleansed of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
Hundreds of thousands of Yezidi Kurds fled their homes in the Shingal area to escape an IS advance in early August, in which hundreds of men were killed and women captured. Most Yezidis eventually reached the safety of the Kurdistan Region.
Here, large numbers are suffering for lack of housing and support, their situation so desperate that many are looking for ways to leave Iraq and find asylum in the West.
Vian Dakhil, a Yezidi Iraqi MP whose emotional appeal for help was mentioned by President Barack Obama when he authorized airstrikes against the IS last month, has demanded that Europe open its doors wide to Yezidi asylum seekers.
But leaders of the Yezidi community in Iraq worry that emigration would leave the minority community even more vulnerable. Once strong in numbers in the region, now there are only an estimated 650,000 Yezidis left in Iraq, with some 100,000 living abroad.
“If our security is guaranteed, no more than five percent will leave Iraq,” said Baba Sheikh, the 81-year-old religious leader of the Yezidis who opposes emigration. “We call on the international community to protect us.”
The religious leader, who lives in the mixed town of Shekhan only miles from territory captured by IS, favors a safe haven for the Yezidis.
According to his spokesman and younger brother, Hadi Baba Sheikh, only 500 soldiers from an international coalition would suffice for the task, perhaps based at an old army base in Shingal, the main city of the Yezidi region. “If you station them there, that will scare away anyone who plans anything against us.”
The spokesman said the international community should also provide a no-fly zone, like the one that saved the Kurds in the early 1990s from Saddam Hussein – although the IS does not have any air power.
“It is not the first time that we have been targeted, nor will it be the last,” said Mir Said, son of the main priest at Lalish, the holy temple of the Yezidis.
He predicted that if the world did not help with a safe haven and UN peacekeepers, Yezidis would leave Iraq in droves.
Baba Sheikh agreed that the situation is critical: “If we do not get this protection, it will be hard to imagine how we can survive.”
His spokesman added that it is highly preferable for his people to remain in Iraq, because once they are abroad many marry Westerners, and are lost for the community. Their strict rules make it impossible to marry outside the faith, and Yezidis do not allow conversions into or out of the faith. This is partly the reason for the decline of numbers over the years.
The rules were made because, throughout history, those in power have tried to force Yezidis to convert. The robbing of women also has been a returning feature of history.
Now, it is the IS that tries to convince abducted Yezidi women to convert, then selling them into marriage with fighters or their leaders. If the women refuse, they are abused sexually. Yezidi men are also being forced into conversion: according to IS propaganda, 200 have embraced Islam.
Because of the tragic circumstances, the strict Yezidi laws will be softened for once, Baba Sheikh announced. “Our spiritual council has to decide, but if people were really forced, they will be taken back into our midst.”
That is important for women who have been sexually abused and robbed of their honor by IS. Ashamed and desperate, some have asked for the places where they are kept to be bombed, while others have chosen suicide.
To send those in IS captivity a signal, Yezidi leaders in Kurdistan have announced that both men and women who have been taken captive or forced to convert will be welcomed back into the community.
“We have called on the community to welcome them without any hesitation,” according to Baba Sheikh’s spokesman, “and to accept the women as normal marriage partners for our men.”
