Tag Archives: Yezidi

Nadia Murad recognized by Occupy World Writes on IWD

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“I have met young girls who were raped at an age when they didn’t even know what the word meant. I met people who lost their entire families; whole families were wiped out.”

Written by Carol Benedict

In 2014, ISIS advanced on Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq (also known as Şengal in Kurdish), capturing or killing thousands of Yezidi (Ezidi) people. Many of the women were taken as sex slaves into the ISIS barbaric practices. Nadia Murad Bassee was one of those women. She survived long enough to escape.

Driven to end the suffering for her community in captivity and to stop an enemy bent on genocide of the Yezidi people, Nadia began to tell her story. Again and again. It became a burden of reliving those moments of hell so others would not have to. It meant revealing the most horrific details of her ordeal to get people to understand and listen. It is easier to hide than to step out of the shadows. Nadia did that, knowing full well what it meant.

In an interview from October of 2016, Nadia commented, “I was not raised to give speeches. Neither was I born to meet world leaders, nor to represent a cause so heavy, so difficult,” she said.

But she would continue “so that one day we can look our abusers in the eye in a court in The Hague and tell the world what they have done to us,” she said. “So my community can heal. So I can be the last girl to come before you.”

Murad was awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, was named a United Nations good-will ambassador on behalf of victims of human trafficking, and she was widely mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016.

NADIA’S MESSAGE

Being a survivor of genocide comes with great responsibility –for I am the lucky one.  Having lost my brothers, mother and many more family members and friends it is a responsibility I embrace fully and take very seriously.  My role as an activist is not just about my suffering  — it is about a collective suffering.  Telling my story and reliving the horrors I encountered is no easy task, but the world must know.  The world must feel a moral responsibility to act and if my story can influence world leaders to act then it must be told.

After the Holocaust, the world decried, “never again” but yet Genocide occurs with haunting frequency.  What’s puzzling to me is that it occurs in full view of the world community.  When ISIS trapped the Yazidi community on Sinjar Mountains, the world watched and world leaders chose not to act.  In fact, we still find ourselves begging the United Nations to act – to stop ISIS – to hold ISIS accountable for all the horrific crimes committed. A fundamental goal for me is to fight impunity for crimes committed against all margined communities devastated by global terrorism.

I am committed to leading a campaign to prompt peace through de-radicalization. I will focus my power to deliver a message to the Muslim world to condemn extremism, particularly against children and women, carried out in the name of Islam.  We must work together to counter terrorism and deter the youth  from joining or supporting radical groups and united to teach all youth the importance of tolerance towards the beliefs of others.

Recent terrorism brought sufferings beyond our any understanding, and women and children have become the population mostly affected, notable, human trafficking and mass  enslavement have become a tool used by terrorists to humiliate societies and humanity at large, I am committed to fight human trafficking and mass enslavement.

We cannot depend solely on the actions of the United Nations and world leaders.  Individuals can contribute to the fight as well.  If we all do our small part, in every corner of the world, I believe we can end genocide and mass atrocities against women and children.  If we have the courage to stand up and fight for those we don’t know – who live thousands of miles away – we can make a difference.   The world is one community and we need to act as such.

I ask you as a survivor and a friend, to join my Initiative and help all victims in the conflict zones, especially those targeted for their identify .  ISIS must be stopped.  Please contribute to this important cause, for we all humans that deserve to live peacefully.

With much gratitude,

Nadia Murad Bassee

About the Author:
Carol Benedict is an indépendant researcher and human rights activist. She is also an independent Journalist and a professional member of the US Press Association.

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Complicity is NOT Acceptable

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Image via FaceBook.

Image via FaceBook.

On September 15, Islamic State stepped up a campaign in the Kobani region of northern Syria. Kobani is a Kurdish enclave that many refugees had fled to as threats of ISIS rose throughout the area. According to a report in “The Independent”:

“Isis fighters used tanks and artillery captured in Iraq to assault the Kurdish enclave around the city of Kobani, also called Ayn al-Arab, where between 400,000 and 500,000 members of Syria’s Kurdish minority have taken refuge. Idris Nassan, the deputy foreign representative of Kobani canton, told The Independent in a phone interview that the attack by Isis, also known as Islamic State, started on 15 September. “[It] is being made from three sides. So far they have captured 15 villages and we have evacuated another 10 because they are too close to the fighting,” he said.

Speaking from Kobani, Mr Nassan said that for the first time, the city had been hit by rockets, three of which exploded in the centre yesterday. The encircling Isis forces are between 12 and 18 miles from the city, which is surrounded by Kurdish villages held by fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian franchise of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The latter has many battle-hardened veterans experienced in fighting the Turkish army over the past 30 years.

Some 400 Kurdish hostages have been taken by Isis, including 133 school children aged between 13 and 14 who were abducted on 30 May as they returned to their homes in Kobani after taking their junior high school final exams in Aleppo.

The siege of Kobani has not attracted much publicity, far less than that of the Old City of Homs, but if it did fall then its half-million Kurds would be at risk. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is quoted as saying that there are fears of massacres in the villages seized by Isis. In addition to eliminating the Kurds as opponents, Isis wants to establish its hold on the border region with Turkey across which it can bring in supplies and foreign volunteers. Mr Nassan says the siege of the enclave is not complete since “we can still buy food at high prices from Arab brokers” but he adds that “unfortunately, the world cares nothing about what happens in Kobani”.

The YPG and PKK have proved the most effective fighters against Isis but the PKK is still labelled a “terrorist organisation” by the US and Europe. The labelling was done at the behest of Turkey, which fought the PKK from 1984, though a ceasefire was declared in 2013. Turkey has been talking to the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for five years but US and European officials are still wary of contacts with the Syrian and Turkish Kurds.

Isis has captured most of eastern Syria, defeating both the Syrian army and rebel movements during the summer. Isis fighters are within 30 miles of Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, and have been consolidating their positions elsewhere. They have been moving their headquarters and heavy weapons out of easily identifiable locations in preparation for US air attacks.”

Occupy World Writes calls on the coalition forces to assist the Kurds in defense of Kobani. These people are from the same ethnic group that brought the world’s attention to the plight of the Yazidi when ISIS chased them into the Sinjar mountains. The international community responded overwhelmingly to save the Yazidi from certain massacre. Now the Kurds are facing that very same fate. We also have no reason to believe the Islamic State would show no mercy toward the inhabitants and refugees in Kobani, since Kurds are the only ground force able to offer a defense against ISIS.

We can not sit in complicity while children, women and men are slaughtered at the hands of a terrorist organization. This is not humane, this is not sane, this is not in accordance with the words of Allah, God, or any divine entity.

SAVE KOBANI

SIGN THE PETITION TO THE UNITED NATIONS CALLING FOR ACTION!

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