ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—With the disaster and tragedy that befell the Yezidis under the Islamic State (ISIS) have come some positive aspects such as putting this community in touch with the outside world, giving its women a role in society and changing some of their social relations, argues Chnar Saad Abdullah, a sociologist and former Kurdish minister of Anfal and martyrs affairs. “Before, Yezidi women were passive and hardly played a role. As many lost their husbands, brothers and fathers, they now have to look after themselves.” Abdullah says of thousands of Yezidi women and girls who survived the ISIS onslaught and abductions. She says that in the past the community shunned or killed women for a simple love relationship outside the community, but the bitter reality of what happened under ISIS and the vast number of female victims has forced the community to accept them into society and not treat them differently. “Before, if a girl was in love with someone from outside the religion, she would be killed. But now, so many girls were raped that the society simply cannot refuse them all. They are now looked at as victims, and nobody tries to kill them. That is a major change, as the society tries to break with the values it had before.” Over 6,000 Yezidis, mostly women and young girls, fell victim to a surprise ISIS attack on the town of Shingal and its surrounding villages in the summer of 2014. Many women were taken as sex slaves and transported to Syria and other parts of Iraq. ISIS invaded the Yezidi province of Sinjar two years ago, and kidnapped over 6000 people, of whom over 3000 still are in hands of the group. The girls and women were sold and used as sex slaves. “Yezidis have strong values. It shows in the relationship between women and men, the patriarchal system and the powerful role of religion,” says Abdullah who as minister she once took care of survivors of the Iraqi Anfal massacre of Kurds. “When Daesh came, the Yezidi society opened up, but outside of the normal process towards change. Under pressure it happened much faster.” Part of the opening process, she explains as a sociologist, comes through contact with the world outside their own region. “They are now in camps in Kurdistan, and many went outside, to Europe. They will be in contact with new people in a new culture, which will have an effect on their own.” Abdullah believes that the conservative values of keeping women on the side have now been sidelined themselves and today women are speaking for their community around the world, particularly women who returned from ISIS captivity. “They have become the symbol for their society,” she says. “You find that women who were victims, became leaders.” Abdullah takes Nadia Murad as an example, a victim of ISIS abduction and abuse who has been traveling the world and conveying the plight of her people at major venues such as the United Nations in New York. “Look at Nadia. If these crimes had not happened to her, who would know her? What would she be doing? We might never have heard of her, nor of the many other Nadias.” Many Yezidi women joining the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Peshmerga to fight their enemies and take back their land and rights is yet another example, says Abdullah. This kind of transformation in the Kurdish society is not new. Abdullah recalls the case of the Barzani tribe thousands of whom were massacred by the former Iraqi regime in the 80s. “There is a similarity,” she argues. “The Barzanis had a closed society, as they lived in the villages. All the men were taken, the women remained. Women had no choice: they had to work, to bring up the children on their own and be a father and mother to them. Their role changed completely.” In the meantime Abdullah is mindful of some possible negative consequences of this transformation in the future. “There could be conflicts between the young and old, between the women and men, as they do not want to lose the power. There can be a dangerous clash, and crime, as men could try to bring the women under their control with force.” She believes, however, that “Already things have changed. They cannot bring back the society as it was. The clock cannot be turned back.”
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