Yazidi American Women Organization

10/02/2020

It is with heavy heart that we report the passing of our Yazidi's Supreme Spiritual leader, Baba Sheikh today.

After ISIS waged Genocide against the Yazidis on August 3rd, 2014, Baba Sheikh (81 years old then) traveled all around the world to bring the plight of Yazidis to world leaders including visiting Washington DC and attending our cry for help protest to free Yazidi women from ISIS.

Baba Sheikh preached humbleness, peace, acceptance and coexistence wherever he went.

Baba Sheikh's decree made it possible for thousands of Yazidi women that were enslaved by ISIS to be welcomed safely and honorably to Yazidi community with their heads up high.

Thank You Baba Sheikh for 87 years of your life May you rest in peace.

04/15/2020

Wishing all the Yazidis around the world a Happy New Year!

08/04/2019

😥😔

08/04/2019

Lansing, Michigan: Commemoration of the 5th Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide that has been on going since August 3rd, 2014.

08/04/2019

08/22/2018

"Fearful that she would see her captor again and wishing to be reunited with four of her sisters who had since been rescued from IS, Ashwaq returned to northern Iraq, leaving behind the town of Schwäbisch Gmünd where she had hoped to start a new life...
..However, activists in Germany say her case may not be an isolated incident.

Düzen Tekkal, an activist and the founder of Hawar.Help, a Berlin-based organisation which campaigns for Yazidi rights, says she has heard of several cases where female Yazidi refugees recognised IS fighters in Germany.

Ashwaq herself says she heard similar accounts from other Yazidi girls who had escaped the jihadists.

Not all cases are reported to the authorities, however."

A Yazidi teenager sold into slavery by IS tells of her horror at meeting her captor in a German street.

08/17/2018

"A former Yazidi s*x slave came face-to-face with her ISIS captor after escaping captivity to flee to Germany but was told that police could do nothing because he was a refugee, it has been claimed...
..Speaking in a Facebook video, she said she had seen the man, Abu Humam, in 2016 and then again earlier this year in Schwäbisch Gmünd in south-western Germany.

She told police and asylum officials about the encounter and although they identified the man from CCTV they said there was nothing they could do because the man was also registered as a refugee, The Times reports...
..Ashwaq was reportedly taken into Syria with 65 members of her wider family and was sold to Abu Human, a Syrian ISIS member, for $100.

After being abused and forced to convert to Islam she walked 14 hours by herself to flee from captivity before she claimed asylum in Germany.

But she has now fled the country after the terrifying encounter with the man who had enslaved her.

She said in a video she had pretended to be Turkish after he had spoken to her in German and Arabic and told her: 'I know where you live'...
..Ashwaq said many Yazidi girls who had fled to Europe had later encountered the men who had put them in captivity.

She said she had a friend in nearby Stuttgart who had also seen her former captor."

Ashwaq Ta'lo (pictured) was kidnapped by ISIS in August 2014, aged 15, and was kept in captivity by the jihadist man for three months but escaped and made her way to Europe.

08/16/2018

STATEMENT ON TURKEY'S RECENT ATTACK ON SINJAR

Turkey has orchestrated an inhumane and unjustifiable attack on Sinjar and its people.

Our team in Sinjar confirmed that Turkey attacked Sinjar around 2 p.m (Sinjar time) on August 15, 2018. According to our local sources, Turkish military planes attacked five vehicles in the town of Shello, located on the west side of Sinjar Mountain, close to the Iraq-Syria border.

This attack on the Yazidis and their homeland is unacceptable. It should not have been allowed by the Iraqi government and the international community. And it must be condemned by all governments, institutions, and organizations who wish to stand for the principles of human rights, freedom, and basic human dignity.

These bombings serve only to hinder the recovery efforts in Sinjar and to further traumatize the Yazidi people who have already suffered genocide, slavery, r**e, and other anguish. Survivors who are merely trying to move on with their lives and achieve some sense of a normal existence are now forced to experience fear, suffering, and brutality all over again. Yazidis should not be forced to suffer again and again while regional powers and the international community turn another blind eye to their plight.

It is even more outrageous that these attacks were perpetrated by a NATO member on the 4th anniversary of the Kocho massacre (a massacre orchestrated by ISIS against the Yazidi people) This is the same NATO member who stood by and did nothing while ISIS was massacring and enslaving Yazidis and other communities in Sinjar only a few years ago.

And this is not the first time Turkey has attacked the Sinjar region. On April 24, 2017, under the justification of targeting forces from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Turkish planes bombed the Yazidi homeland.

A little less than a year later, on April 4, 2018, all PKK forces withdrew from Sinjar. This did not stop Turkey from attacking Sinjar and its people again.

Yet, in 2014, when the Yazidis were stranded, starving, thirsty, and surrounded by hostile, genocidal ISIS forces on the Sinjar mountains, Turkey did not bomb Sinjar. Turkey did not attack ISIS. Turkey did not do anything.

The Yazidi people and their homeland continue to suffer not only from Turkish attacks but also from other regional and political forces.

The Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq have a duty to protect its people and its territory from foreign attacks and incursions. This includes Sinjar. For, Sinjar and its people are a part of Iraq. It is thus imperative that the Iraqi government protect Sinjar and its people.

These types of attacks and violence in Sinjar must not be allowed to continue. The Iraqi government must act, the KRG must act, and the global community must act to ensure that Sinjar and the Yazidi people are truly protected from further harm. Furthermore, they must act to help Sinjar rebuild and the Yazidi people recover. The world must not continue to fail the Yazidi people.

08/06/2018

From Amnesty International on the continuing plight of Yazidi women and girls:

"Little of the reactions of sympathy from the international community has translated into action. Local and international humanitarian NGOs working with Yezidis are still underfunded, while no unified system of services is made available to Yezidi women and girls. The international community, including donors, must do more to ensure the needs of Yezidi women survivors are adequately met, through specialized support and treatment programmes set up in consultation with survivors, community activists, and care providers."

Please take action by donating to the Yazidi American Women Organization. Every little bit counts: http://www.saveyazidis.org/donate/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/08/four-years-on-yezidi-women-struggles-continue/

On 10 December 2017, Iraq declared its victory over the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS), which had been attempting to establish a so-called Islamic Caliphate in the country since late June 2014. In what we can begin to call post-IS Iraq, thousands upon thousands of civilians bear scars...