'We are hired, bought, received as a gift': the history of the Nobel laureate Nadi Murad
'09.10.2018'
Source: New Paper
Nade Murad was awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to stop the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and for his courage in the fight against war crimes. The girl, who lived for several months in the slavery of ISIS and told the whole world about the incredible cruelty, began to cry, having learned about the award.
Correspondents "New Newspaper”In 2016, a former concubine of Islamic State militants was found, who was in a European country under a witness protection program. Then she had the courage to tell the world her story. On October 5, 2018, Nadia Murad became the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
(21 + Materials contain descriptions of scenes of exceptional cruelty).
REFERENCE
Nadia Murad Basi Taha. 21 year, Yezidi, comes from the village of Kocho (Northern Iraq, Kurdistan). She was in slavery at the militants of the "Islamic State" for three months, fled. 16 December Nadia spoke to the UN Security Council, spoke about the Yezidi genocide carried out by the IG. In 2016, the Iraqi government nominated Nadia as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. October 5 2018 of the year became its laureate.
Our village is in 30 kilometers from the city of Sinjar, this is the farthest Yezidi village, then there are already Muslim villages. Among the Yezidis, in Sinjar, in my village, life was very simple. We lived autonomously from the state. The whole village was engaged in agriculture, kept cattle. And so do we. We grew wheat, barley. I have the whole family in the village. My father died in the 2003 year. I lived with my brothers, sisters, with my mother. I had eight brothers and two sisters.
We had only one school in Kocho, we all went there. I was very friendly with classmates. We talked a lot about our future, who will become what kind of person, what kind of profession. I loved history very much, I wanted to become a teacher. I learned 6 years in elementary school, then three years in middle school, then another five years in high school. I remained the sixth, last year, then I had to go to university. But at the beginning of the sixth school year, the war began, and the IG seized our village.
REFERENCE
Yezidis are a Kurdish ethno-confessional group, speak Kurmanjian. The religion of the Yezidis - Yezidism, is close to Zoroastrianism, contains elements of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. This is a monotheistic religion. Mostly live in northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, Syria and in European countries. According to various sources, there are from 1 to 1,5 million Yezidis on the planet. The main territory of the Yezidi’s compact residence is the Ain Sifni, Sinjar and Dohuk districts in the Iraqi governorship of Mosul. According to pre-war estimates, the number of Yezidis in Iraq was approximately 700 thousand people.
In my village, all the inhabitants were Yezidis. Our religion is very ancient. Faith is the basis of our life. In our village, a girl cannot marry someone other than a Yezidis male; we cannot marry Christians or Muslims. But we, like Muslims and Christians, believe in God. We also have holidays like New Year's, a three-day fast in December, we have our prayers and our temples. In the city of Lalesh - our main temple, in Sinjar there are also holy places where we went. Probably, IG destroyed them. My family has no people who serve in the temple, no priests. But Lalesh has the highest religious council of holy people, they govern our society according to all religious rules.
I first heard about IG in June when they captured Mosul. There was news on TV, I caught a glimpse, but we didn’t think that they would come to us, and we didn’t pay attention. I remember how men discussed what to do if they attack us. But we did not even think of leaving our homes and fleeing. In Sinjar there were Kurdish officials, Kurdish security officials, and they confirmed that the IS will not touch us. Both the Iraqi authorities and the Kurdistan government said: “Do not leave, no one will attack you, we are guarding you.” We believed them, we hoped for their protection. They did not tell us that the ISIS had already destroyed the Yezidis in other areas. We knew that when the IG seized the cities of Mosul and Hamdania, they said to local Shiites and Christians: “You have two days to leave the city”, and they were not touched. When the IG entered Tall Afar, in the Shiite villages around, they said: “Go away, leave all the property at home and go away”. We thought they would react to us that way too, if that. But we did not believe that we would be captured, of course. We did not even close the doors to our homes.
* * *
On August 3, 2014, the IG captured the city of Sinjar. They entered the Yezidi villages around the city, and from early morning some Yezidis fled to the mountains to escape. The gunmen began to shoot. On this day, three thousand people died - men, women, children. I know this from families who fled to the cities of Kurdistan, everyone told who was killed from his family. They counted and got three thousand. After the release of Sinjar, 16 found mass graves in Sinjar and the surrounding villages. Militants have banned people from leaving their cities and towns. On the same day they took away many women and girls.
On the third of August we could not leave the village. When they captured the area, they came to us directly from the nearest village, since our village is very close to the Muslim villages of Baazh and Glezh. We entered our village, took control of it and told that no one left the village. Threatening with weapons, they set up roadblocks. Then they went home and seized the weapons from whom it was. Each of us stayed in our home from 3 to August 15.
14 August - it was Thursday - their emir came to the village. His name was Abu Hamza Al-Khatuni. In every Yezidi village there is a mukhtar - elder. The emir came to our elder and said: “You have three days. Either accept Islam or we will kill you. ”
But they did not even wait. The next day, 15 August, this emir came again. Along with him about two thousand militants entered the village. And at 10.30 — 11 hours of the morning — it was Friday — they announced that all the villagers — women, children, and men — would gather at our school. All of us - 1700 people - were driven to school. When we were in school, the ISIL respondents said: “All women and children are on the second floor, while the men remain on the first floor.” I was on the second floor, but in the span we saw what was happening on the first. Militants collected rings, money, mobile phones, wallets from men - all that they had. After that, they climbed to the second floor, and all that the children had was women: rings, gold — they took them too. They themselves were beardless, but with beards, some had long hair, some had short hair, all were dressed in long robes, djelyabs. Their emir shouted to us from below: "Who wants to convert to Islam, go out, and the rest will remain in school." None of us - neither women nor men - did not want to convert to Islam. No one left the school.
After that, they put all the men in a pickup truck - all 700 people - and drove them away from the village, not far, beyond 200 meters. We ran to the windows and saw how they shot them. I saw it with my own eyes.
Among the men were six of my brothers. Three more cousins from the father’s side, two cousins from the mother’s side. And there were many other relatives. My brothers are five relatives, one stepbrother. I do not want to name them. It hurts me so far.
After they finished off the men, they went up to us and said: “Get down to the first floor”. They asked: "Who wants to accept Islam, raise your hand." But none of us raised our hands. And we were all loaded into the same pick-ups and taken in the direction of Sinjar. We did not know where they were taking us and what they would do to us.
All of us — children, women and old women — were taken to the nearby village of Solach, near Sinjar, by pick-up trucks and placed in a two-story school in this village. It was 8 in the evening. There were only residents of our village, with the inhabitants of other villages, they figured it out. Before we were driven to school, they took the handkerchiefs with which we covered our heads, took our jackets to see our faces well. In school, we began to breed in different directions. They were divided into four groups - married, elderly, children and we, young girls.
We were sorted by men of different ages, both young and old, and middle-aged. They asked who was married, who was not. The elderly and those who are older than 40 were separated, pregnant women, too.
We, the young girls, turned 150, from 9 to 25 years. We were taken to the square. 80 elderly women were taken out of school and killed them, as the militants did not want to take them as concubines. They were all my fellow villagers. Among them was my mother.
Buses arrived at 11 in the evening. While there were no buses, four militants read us the Koran. All of us - 150 girls - were put in two buses, and there were about 10 cars accompanied. The lights in the buses did not light, so that the planes on top of them could not see and did not bomb the convoy. Only the first car came with headlights on, the rest did not.
We were driven from Solach towards Mosul. Each bus had one militant. Our companion was called Abu Batat. He approached each girl on the bus and, highlighting with his mobile phone, examined his face. He did not lag behind, walked along the rows, pestered each one, grabbed his chest with his hand, drove his beard down the face. It lasted and lasted. A few hours ago, our men and mothers were killed, and we did not know why we would do it or what to do with us. I sat at the aisle, he touched my chest, and then I started to scream, and all the girls on the bus also started screaming and crying. The driver stopped the bus. The militants came from the accompanying cars and asked what had happened. The girls began to say that he bothers us, I said that he grabs girls by the chest. And one of the militants said: "Well, that is exactly why we took you, you are here for this." He brought a weapon at us and said: “You cannot talk, move and look around until we reach Mosul.” And all this time, until we arrived, we could not even speak because of this Abu Batata.
We were taken to Mosul, to the headquarters of the IG. Huge two-story house with a basement. And at half past two, all of us were led there. There were already women and children - Yezidis, whom 3 of August captured. I sat next to a woman and asked her: “You were brought before. What happened to you, what did you do, how many of you? ” I remember that she had two children. She said, “On August 3, we were captured and brought here. Here, at headquarters, 400 women and girls are Yezidok. Every day after lunch or in the evening they come to us and pick up the girls they want. Until now, we, who are older and with children, have not been taken away yet. But surely today or tomorrow they will come and take one of you. ”
We stayed there until the morning. At 10, the hours of the morning announced that we would all be divided into two groups. Some will be left in Mosul, others will be sent to Syria. They chose 63 girls, which they decided to leave, and I was among them. The rest were sent to Syria. My two sisters were taken to Syria.
We were transferred to another building, also a two-story. On the first floor were the militants, and the girls were sent to the second floor. Of my whole family, three of my nieces, 15, 16 and 17 years old girls, stayed with me. Two of them are sisters - the daughter of one of my brother, the third - the daughter of another of my brother. We stayed two days there, until 18 August. The windows were covered with black, we did not know day, morning or night. Only when they brought us food, we asked how much time.
In the evening of August 18 a second floor climbed around the 100 militants. They stood in the middle of the room, began to consider and choose their girls. We are covered with horror. Many girls fainted, others vomited with fear, someone screamed, and they chose who they wanted. My nieces and I squatted on the floor, we hugged each other, we didn’t know what to do, and shouted too
A very large man entered the room, like a wardrobe, as if it were five people together, all in black, and he headed towards me and my nieces. The girls clutched at me, we screamed in horror. He stood before us and said to me, "Get up." I did not move and was silent, and he pushed me with his foot and said: "You, stand up." I said: "I will not get up, I will go with another, I am afraid of you." Then another fighter came up and said: “You must go with the one who chose you. They approach you - you get up and walk, this is an order. ”
He led me to the first floor, where they registered which girl she was leaving with. There was a list of girls, and they crossed out the names of those who were taken. I looked at the floor, did not see anything around. And while looking for my name to cross out, because I'm going with this fat one, at that moment I noticed someone's legs. Someone came up, someone small. I fell, hugged his legs and did not even look at the face, I said: "Please, take me wherever you want, just save me from this man, I'm afraid of him."
And this young man said in Arabic to the huge one: “I want this girl. I am taking her for myself. ”
* * *
This man was called Haji Salman, he is a field commander, he is from Mosul. He took me to his headquarters, he had six guards and a driver. One of them was told to teach me the Qur'an.
Haji Salman took me to a room, sat down next to me and asked me to become a Muslim, to convert to Islam. I replied: "If you do not force me to sleep with you, then I will accept Islam." He said: "No, you will still be our woman, I chose you for this." - "Then I will not accept Islam." Haji Salman said: “You, Yezidis, infidels, infidels. You must believe, and now you are unbelievers. " I asked: "And my brothers, my family?". He replied: “They are infidels, and I killed them. And we will give you the Muslims of the IG, and you will no longer be unfaithful. We freed you from kafirs so that you would accept Islam. ”
He undressed. Said so that I undressed. I said, “You know, I'm sick. When they killed our men, I started my period. It hurts me a lot, I don't want to undress, I can't take men. ” He forced me to undress. I left only cowards. He said: "Take off your pants, because I want to check that you really have monthly periods." When he saw that I really had my period, he left me alone and did not rape me that night.
The next morning he told me: “I will leave now, and in the evening I will come to you and will sleep with you, and I don’t care if you have monthly periods or not.”
Somewhere at six o'clock in the evening his driver came to me. He brought cosmetics, a dress, said: “Haji Salman reports that you need to wash, make up, put on a dress and get ready for Haji Salman. He will come now. ” I realized that there was no way out. I did all this: I took a shower, put on my makeup, put on this dress, sat on the bed.
When he entered the room, he approached me. Got undressed, told me to undress. I did it. And he raped me. I was a girl before that. In the hall where this room goes, there were his guards, the driver and other militants, I screamed all the time, calling for help, but no one answered and did not help, they didn’t care.
The next day they dressed me in a black dress, in all black. He took me to the Islamic court of Mosul, the court of the IG. When I arrived there, I saw a thousand girls, like me, with their heads covered, in black dresses, and there is an action next to each other. We were taken to the judge, cadi, his name was Hussein. Qadi read the Quran over our heads, we were forced to utter the words with which a person enters Islam. Then they took a photo of each girl, stuck it on the wall, and wrote a number under the photo. This number belongs to the person who still slept with this girl. Under my photo they wrote the number and name of Haji Salman. That's why they did it. Militants come to court and look at the photos, and if someone likes a girl, he can call this number and rent it. For rent paid money, things, as agreed. We could rent, buy, get a gift.
When we returned from the trial, he told me: “Do not try to try to escape. You will be very bad, we will do this with you. " I replied: "I can not run, you - IG. I know that I am powerless. ”
A week has passed since I was with him. Many guests came to him ... I was patient. But it is too hard life, among these militants IS. I had to escape from there, at any cost, because it would be better, even if they killed me. And I tried to escape.
Inside the building I could walk from floor to floor, so I decided to try. On 8 in the evening I went down from the second floor to the first. On the first floor there is a low balcony, a staircase leads down to the garden from the balcony. I had already descended the stairs, and there one guard caught me.
When his guard caught me, he led me into the room. Haji Salman came, started hitting me, hit me ten times, then said: "Quickly undress." It used to be that he undressed at first, and then told me ... But this time he ordered me to undress. This Haji Salman is a very bad person, I have not seen anyone as ruthless.
I took off all my clothes for fear. I naked huddled in a corner, he ordered to go to the bed, and I sat on the corner of the bed. And he told me from the door: “What did I tell you? If you try to escape, I will do this to you. ” He went out. And six of his guards entered the room.
They closed the door. This is before my eyes now. I remember three raping me. Then I lost consciousness, and I do not know how many more of them were there, what happened afterwards. The next day at 8 in the morning I opened my eyes, there was no one in the room.
After that, I stayed in the room for three days. I was very sick, I could not get up. No one came up to me. Only sometimes these guards brought me food. On the fourth day I got up, washed my head, stood under a shower. The next day I was told: "Get ready, put on your black clothes." I got up, dressed in black. It turns out that two men came from the city of Hamdania, also IG. They said to me: we bought you, get dressed, you will go with us.
They took me to the city of Hamdania. I entered a large room and saw Yezidi women's clothes on the floor there. A lot of clothes. And these militants said that before I had raped 11 women in this room.
I had two weeks for them, for these two men, each for a week. Two weeks later, two of them came to them and with them four girls, in the same black rags. I do not know where they were brought from. We were not allowed to talk to each other. They took me, and they left these girls. Exchange. These two served at the checkpoint and took me to this checkpoint. I have them remained 10 days. I was raped. Then the ISIS driver arrived from the city of Mosul and took me to his place.
I had two nights and three days, and on the third night he said to me: “I will now go for beautiful clothes for you. You need to wash and put it on, look good. People will come to look at you, and if they like you, they will buy you. ”
It was somewhere around 11 hours of the evening, when he left for clothes. There was only me and him in the house, he left for the clothes, and I was left alone.
I left the house. I thought if they caught me again or not, I didn’t know if I could be saved or not. I went out, ran, slowly walked past the old houses and knocked on the door of one of them. There was no light outside. Someone discovered, and I immediately went in, not knowing if they were action films or ordinary people, a woman or a man, it was unclear about anything, but I tried to find any home I wanted to hide.
It was still summer, it was very hot. There was no light. I saw that there was a woman and children in the house. I said that I was a Yezidi, told my story and begged me to help me escape from here. The husband of this woman said: "Now you sleep here, we'll see tomorrow."
Six of my brothers were killed, five relatives and one stepbrother, but three more brothers in Kurdistan are working, I knew that one of them was in a refugee camp, and I remembered his phone number. The next morning, a husband and wife approached me, and I said: “Help me. My brother lives in a refugee camp in Kurdistan. Give me a mobile phone, I want to call my brother. I will give anything you want, just help me get out of here. ”
They gave me a mobile. I called my brother and told me to transfer money to them, maybe they will help me. And they told me that they would give me an ID, black clothes, they would be sent by taxi and saved.
This family was incredibly good, they really wanted to help, but they were very poor. My brother transferred money to them, and indeed, they gave me the ID of his Muslim wife, they gave me black clothes and took a taxi. My brother said, "We must go to Kirkuk."
Before the trip, a man photographed me in a burqa and sent my brother through a vibe. I wrote to him that I was wanted, that he would risk himself and take me out. The man went with me, I was in a veil, everything was closed, except for the eyes, and no one even checked and looked at the face, just looked at the ID.
When we went, my photo was at each checkpoint. This was the picture of the court, without the burqa. Under the photo it was written: "This is a runaway Yezidi, and if someone finds it, you must return it to headquarters." We drove three checkpoints. When we reached Kirkuk at the checkpoint where the Kurdish soldiers were, my brother was standing there. He took me. So I came to my brother.
Remember, I told about a huge man who wanted to pick me up for himself? When Haji Salman picked me up, this man took my niece. She stayed in Mosul for seven months, she was resold several times, but then she also managed to escape from there. Just like me, she ran into someone else's house, and for a lot of money they helped her escape from Mosul to Kirkuk. Now she has two weeks in Germany. The German state took it out. And two other nieces - I do not know what is with them so far. There is no information about them.
With my two sisters, who were sent to Syria, the same thing happened. They were bought and sold many times, and then one of the relatives paid a lot of money for them and bought them back. One now in Germany, the other in Kurdistan, in the camp.
The men who bought and sold us were insensitive to us. I have not met a single good person among them. They were very glad that it was with us, the Yezidis, who were doing it. They treated Christians and Shiites badly, treated all minorities badly, but they had a special approach to the Yezidis. They sold and raped women, killed men. None of our village: no women, no girls, no men, no children - no one escaped violence or murder
About 3400 Yezidis - women, children, elderly women and young girls - are gone. For the 16 months there is no information about them. Someone says they have already been killed. It is said that many committed suicide. But no one knows their fate.
They are not searched, not a single word is said about them. Now the whole world sees what the IG is, the whole world sees what the IG does. But right now, girls and women are selling and raping. But the conscience of mankind has not awakened, and these women have no one to release.
