In August 2024, the world marked a decade since the attack on Sinjar, Iraq, and the genocide against its indigenous population. On August 3, 2014, Daesh (also known as ISIS, ISIL, or IS) launched a devastating attack on Sinjar, inflicting widespread atrocities on the Yazidi community, an ethno-religious numeric minority community in Iraq. The terror group killed thousands, predominantly targeting men and elderly women, while abducting boys to forcibly conscript them as child soldiers. Thousands of women and girls were abducted and subjected to sexual slavery and violence. Daesh’s crimes included murder, enslavement, deportation, and forced displacement. The group systematically imprisoned, tortured, abducted, exploited, abused, raped, and coerced women into marriages across the region. In the days following the Sinjar assault, Daesh expanded its campaign of terror to other communities in the Nineveh Plains, causing 120,000 people to flee in the dead of night in a desperate bid to save their lives.
To this day, over 2,600 Yazidi women and children remain unaccounted for. Over the years, we have been hearing some stories of successful rescue operations and the return of the missing. However, the international community rarely has an opportunity to have a look on what such a return after years in captivity actually means. Now, thanks to a brave young Yazidi woman, Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad, the struggle to reestablish life after years of enslavement is brought to the surface, with a documentary from director Hasan Oswald and executive producer Emma Thompson.
The powerful documentary painfully portrays the challenges faced by those who survived and are trying to re-establish their lives while fighting trauma, loss, and uncertainty. Mediha, then a teenage girl, turns her camera on herself to break the silence, tell her story and also to process her trauma after surviving Daesh’s captivity. Together with her younger brothers, Ghazwan and Adnan, she strives to rebuild their lives, while searching for her missing family members – mother, father and younger brother. Over the course of three years and across several countries, including Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, the story highlights one girl’s extraordinary journey towards justice.
Mediha, now 19 years old, was only 10 when Daesh attacked Sinjar. She was one of the thousands of Yazidi women and children abducted by the terror group. She was separated from her parents and three younger brothers before being enslaved for three years. During this time, she was sold to Daesh fighters several times. She was sold for the equivalent of $500. One of them was a man who enslaved Mediha, Abu Yosuf. Mediha identified him from photographs of Daesh fighters collected by the Commission for Investigation and Gathering Evidence (CIGE) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Having testified to CIGE, she is now pursuing justice with the hope that Abu Yosuf will be held to account.
Mediha, as were her two brothers, Ghazwan and Adnan, were ultimately rescued. However, the whereabouts of the parents are unknown. The documentary suggests that the father may have been killed, as many Yazidi men have been. The mother may still be alive, although the attempts to find her have not been successfully to date. The documentary shows the attempts to find Mediha’s youngest brother who was sold for the equivalent of $120.
Mediha and some of her family members were lucky to be rescued. However, over 2,600 Yazidi women and children are yet to be reunited with their families. In October 2024, a Yazidi woman was rescued from Gaza, after she was abducted at the age of 11. In June 2024, a Yazidi woman was rescued from northeast Syria. In March 2024, a Yazidi woman was rescued from Daesh captivity. She was only 14 when she was abducted from her village in Shingal district. These are only a few examples from the over 3,500 Yazidis who were rescued, including some 2,000 children. Another 2,600 Yazidi women and children are still waiting to return home, and so are their family members living in uncertainty.
Despite the work of some governments, non-governmental organizations and rescuers, there has been no joint international effort to get the missing people back. Now ten years later, the international community pays very little, if any, attention to the plight of the community still enduring genocide. Similarly, the assistance provided to victims/survivors continues to decrease. Organizations such as Yazda, Free Yezidi Foundation, and Nadia’s Initiative, go above and beyond to support the communities. However, as this genocide against the Yazidis is ongoing, the needs continue.
The Yazidi community require renewed international attention to end this genocide, provide comprehensive assistance to victims/survivors that is reflective of their physical, psychological and other needs, protect their future, and provide guarantees of non-recurrence of such horrific atrocities. Documentaries such as Mediha can help to renew the focus on the situation and put the victims/survivors at the centre.