Everyone knows the plight of the Yazidi women. Their sexual slavery, inhumane treatment, and their murders are well documented. Many women of this minority group have chosen to end their lives instead of falling into the hands of Islamic State terrorists. So when Yazidi activist and survivor of Islamic state brutality Nadia Murad informed the world that 3000 Yazidi women and girls were still in Islamic State captivity she was heard by many with sympathy and dismay.
There is still 3000 Yazidi women & girls under ISIS captivity. Has the world forgotten us?!!
— Nadia Murad (@NadiaMuradBasee) February 8, 2017
An Indian man, however, informed her that some in India would like the girls to live and not commit suicide. Many Yazidi women chose to end their life instead of allowing Islamic State terrorists to take them as captives. This is the argument that many have used against Hindu Rajput Queen Padmawati as well, who chose to burn herself alive instead of surrendering in front of Alauddin Khilji. On this Nadia Murad told the Indian man that the women of her community would prefer to die than being held by ISIS because as she pointed out ‘Yazidi women die every day a thousand times in captivity.’
Not true: Yazidi women would prefer to die than being held by ISIS. Yazidi women die every day a thousand times in captivity. https://t.co/c1mheJAkGW
— Nadia Murad (@NadiaMuradBasee) February 8, 2017
While Nadia made the point that Yazidi women won’t accept sexual slavery, it is this that many wish Queen Padmawati and other women to have accepted and suffered. It is sad that while people continue to pass judgment on Hindu women who committed Jauhar, fall silent when the suffering Yazidi women who say that they are being forced to do the same thing because the world just does not care for their misery or their right to a dignified life.
Yazidi women have indeed been forgotten
While the refugee debate in West rages on, very little has been said on the plight of the Yaizidi man, women, and children who continue to suffer.
MEMRI reported recently that in a TV interview, Yazidi Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil said that the Kurdish Regional Government had bought back 2,750 Yazidi women and children from ISIS, but that the Iraqi government had done little to support the effort. “Now let’s see what the [Iraqi] government has done. We have a Ministry of Migration and Displaced, which is supposed to deal with this. What has the MoMD done? … The minister is a Kurd. But what has he done in this case?”
Dakhil also said that the battle to mend the social fabric of Mosul after its liberation and restore what was destroyed by ISIS would be harder than the battle for Mosul itself, “because we have lost all trust.”
