ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The first group of 18 Yezidi women who escaped from the Islamic State, or ISIS, have been flown to Germany to be treated for the psychological effects of their time in captivity. These women are part of a total group of 1,000 traumatized Iraqi women and children who will be taken out of the country to be given special treatment not available in Iraq. The project is the result of cooperation between the governments of the German regional state Baden Württemberg and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said Dr Mirza Dinnaye, coordinator of the Kurdish side of the initiative. “It is meant for women and children who were victims of ISIS,” Dinnaye said. “We know that over 95 percent of them are Yezidi, but we also took lists with names of Christian victims from the churches. In the first group, we have five of them.” Dinnaye, better known in Kurdistan as Dr Mirza, is a physician and Yezidi activist who once worked as an advisor on religious minorities for former Iraqi president Jalal Talabani. Presently, Dinnaye is advisor and member of the General Board for Kurdish Areas Outside the Region. As most of the areas conquered by ISIS are outside KRG, he now has to deal with the fate of the kidnapped men, women and children who managed to escape from ISIS. The bad state many of the victims are in creates problem for them, and society. Most women and even young girls were raped, many used as sex slaves. Children witnessed the atrocities ISIS inflicted on the Yezidis. Many of the Yezidis who were able to escape or were released are severely traumatized. At the same time, Dinnaye said Kurdistan has no more than 20 to 30 psychiatrists for its 5.5 million inhabitants, plus the 2.2 million refugees and IDPs. “We have no capacity to help them, neither in the Ministry of Health nor in private clinics or NGOs, as we have no human resources, no knowledge, no special clinics.” Among the Yezidi victims are many cases of suicidal tendencies and deep depressions. “It is very difficult to manage the situation of those who are so badly traumatized,” he said. Even though it would be possible to fly in the therapists, he thinks it is best for the patients to be taken away from the misery. “If those who were captured would return to their own homes instead of a tent, I would prefer special treatment here. But they are now living in a bad situation, with many [people] in a tent,” Dinnaye added. Yet only the most serious cases go to Germany. Dinnaye makes the first selection, after which a psychologist from Germany comes over to make interviews and decide who is most in need of therapy. “We do not divide the families; if a woman has children they go with her,” Dinnaye said. The first group that left in early April can be seen as a pilot program, the doctor said. The next group of around 70 people will follow soon. “We have only eight months to fly them out, a very tight schedule.” In Germany, the women will get a residence permit for two years, which can be extended. Some of them will be treated in hospital, others through outside clinics. They will be housed in different cities across the state with the regional German government paying their costs. A major problem Dinnaye has stumbled upon is that of those he interviewed, more than half do not have a passport. “And without [a passport], they cannot leave,” Dinnaye said. This regulation is causing major strains on women in the camps in Iraqi Kurdistan who are eager to join the program. In the rural areas of the Shingal region where they originate, hardly anyone had a passport. When ISIS attacked, many did not have time to pick up IDs or other documents. Because the Shungal region is part of Iraq, the women have to go to Baghdad to apply for a passport. Even if they could get there– it’s an expensive and dangerous trip – they lack the necessary documents to obtain a passport. According to Dinnaye, the Iraqi citizenship document is the main problem. “You cannot get it directly; you should have a father, uncle or grandfather. Without neither a father or mother it is impossible,” he said. In conservative Iraqi society women are not permitted to travel alone with children without the consent of a male relative. As such, many Shigal victims are stranded by tradition and bureaucracy. Dinnaye’s office in Duhok is already clogged up with the problem, and he urgently calls on Kurdish and Iraqi authorities to make an exception for these victims. “Because I really do not know how to solve it otherwise, and many who need the help will not get it in this way.”
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