Freeing Mosul, means freeing our Yezidi women

While the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga are liberating village after village on the road to Mosul, one news item is sadly absent. There is no news about Yezidi-women being liberated during the Battle for Mosul so far.

It’s something not only Yezidis, but many others are waiting for eagerly: to hear that the girls and women the Islamic group ISIS kidnapped two years ago and has been using as slaves ever since, are saved.

Kurdish politicians have stated that the fate of the girls is foremost in their mind, and it has been in mine ever since the start of the battle came nearer.

According to aid workers, some 3,700 Yezidis, mostly girls and women, are still in the hands of ISIS, and it is thought that most of them are kept in Iraq’s second city Mosul.

The aid workers tell us about phone calls of some of the women, who beg to bomb them sooner than later if they are not going to be saved. For this is no life, abused in every sense by ISIS members.

The question now is, whether the girls are still in Mosul, as they have become a commodity for their ‘owners’, something of value to be sold in case of emergency – like women sell their gold when they need money.

Their price has gone up in the past two years and the girls are now said to be sold for hundreds of dollars each, and for much more when the buyer is abroad.

It is known that ISIS families left the city by the Ba’aj road, and headed mainly for the Syrian ISIS capital of Raqqa, in SUVs, trucks and busses.

Whether they took their slaves, it is not known, but considering how much the girls fetch on the market, it seems logical they would. Because Raqqa is ISIS territory, they can be sold there easily.

Some ISIS followers staying behind in Mosul might have kept their slaves though, so these can look after them while the family is away.

Some media have suggested that ISIS has threatened to kill the Yezidis once the armies would enter the city, a suggestion that is just as farfetched as the one that ISIS was going from door to door to kill cats as result of a fatwa against keeping them as pets.

Apart from all the propaganda going on, it is clear that the situation of those Yezidis still in the city while the battle goes on must be dire.

Not only because of the bombings, but will the Iraqi soldiers recognize the women for what they are, victims, and not treat them as if they are accomplices?

For we know that a Yezidi woman who was in a booby trapped house where Peshmerga got killed, is still being held as an accomplice by the Kurds even though she denies this charge.

Yezidis have time and again asked the Iraqi government to save their girls from the horrors inflicted on them by ISIS. But Baghdad let them down, for the only way Yezidis have been saved in the past two years, has been through private initiatives: saved by liberators and bought from fighters.

The Kurdish authorities have been repaying money spent in this process, but are many months behind on payments as result of the ongoing economic crisis in Kurdistan. And the liberation process almost stopped in the past months for lack of money and tightened security in the ISIS territories.

The Mosul Operation has started not only without political agreement for the future, but also a plan on how to liberate the Yezidi women seems to be lacking.

Fate may land them into the hands of the Iraqi army, of which an intelligence chief, Haitham al-Malaki told Fox News that “the minute we are on the verge of the city, we will notify those assets to go in and collect as many girls as possible before going in. We will also open a rescue path to ensure safe passage for the ones we can’t get beforehand.”

In the past, civilians of Mosul have helped girls escape, some even collected money to buy them and get them out to safety. It was little advertised, but should be noted in the blaming process awaiting them.

For it seems that their help is essential again; if they know where the girls are kept, they should get them out and hand them to the liberators who can make sure that they are looked after.

Everybody should realise that the Yezidi women that are left inside for so long, will be severely traumatized and brainwashed, and need the kindest treatment possible until they are handed over to medical staff.

I really hope someone has instructed the soldiers that the captive Yezidi women need all the care and kindness they did not get in the past two years.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.