Yazidi Activist and Survivor of ISIS Captivity Nadia Murad: Yazidis Will Not Return to Sinjar without International Protection

Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, who survived ISIS captivity, said in an interview with the Al-Arabiya network that the Yazidis will not return to Sinjar even if it is fully liberated unless the Yazidi genocide receive international recognition and the Yazidis are awarded international protection. Murad said that the Yazidis have lost trust in the Peshmarga, which failed to protect them, as well as in their Arab-Muslim neighbors, many of whom, she said, joined ISIS in persecuting the Yazidis. The interview aired on August 4.

 

Interviewer: "Let's be specific. What is it that you want from the world? What should it do for the Yazidis, apart from the issue of ISIS?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "True, I'm Yazidi, but what I'm asking the world to do is not just for the Yazidis, but for all women and children worldwide, especially in war-torn countries, such as Iraq, Syria, Libya, and African countries. I am calling for justice for all, and that something is being done for the girls still being held by ISIS. My message is directed especially to Islamic society, to the youth: They should distance themselves from the ISIS ideology."

 

 

[...]

 

 

Interviewer: "In one of your statements, you said: When ISIS came to our village, nobody came to our aid. Wasn't the Peshmerga there?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Nobody came to help us."

 

 

Interviewer: "Not even the Peshmerga?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Not to the village of Kocho or others. The things that happened in Kocho happened to all the Yazidis. True, the Peshmerga forces were in Sinjar, but the truth is that we had no protection. I demanded and continue to demand that the Kurdish government... We still don't know why nothing was done to defend us."

 

 

Interviewer: "You're bringing me to my next question. You called upon the Kurdish leadership to hold accountable the Peshmerga commanders who left Sinjar when ISIS entered. Isn't that right?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Yes. We continue to demand that the Kurdish commanders who left Sinjar be held accountable. The Yazidis, especially the survivors, call to hold them accountable."

 

 

[...]

 

 

Nadia Murad: "I think that 60% of Sinjar has been liberated. A few Yazidi families have returned to the northern area, but most will not return so easily, even if (all of) Sinjar is liberated."

 

 

Interviewer: "Why not?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Because we have lost trust, after we received no protection..."

 

 

Interviewer: "You have lost trust in whom?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Since nothing was done to protect us, and most of the Muslim Arabs whom we knew (as our neighbors) joined in when ISIS attacked us, and their wives threw candy at us when we became slave-girls. We lost trust because we received no protection. What happened to the Yazidis must be recognized as a genocide, and we must receive international protection, or else the Sinjar region must be governed by the people of Sinjar."

 

 

Interviewer: "So you don't want either the Kurdish or the Iraqi government?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "I'm not saying we don't want the Iraqi government. If it has to be one or the other, then no problem, as long as the Sinjar region is ruled by the people of Sinjar."

 

 

Interviewer: "Do you want international protection?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Yes."

 

 

Interviewer: "You want Western or Eastern armies to come in?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Anybody who comes to protect us (is welcome). The Yazidis are demanding international protection, and this is their right, because we did not receive protection. There is no man who would accept his wife, the mother or 3 or 5 children, being an ISIS slave-girl. Or his daughter or mother... This is something we will not accept, and we will not return unless we receive international protection, or unless the genocide of the Yazidis is recognized, and we are allowed to protect ourselves."

 

 

[...]

 

 

Interviewer: "How can you lump the Arabs and the Muslims together with ISIS, saying that they joined them?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "I don't think I attacked Islam over ISIS in any interview. I always say that after visiting Egypt and Kuwait, my view of the Muslims changed. I realized that ISIS is one thing and Islam is another. But we still expect a clear stand on the part of the Muslims in this regard, because honestly, you all know that ISIS does not operate in secret. In their videos, they say: We represent Islam and implement the shari'a. Therefore we want to see a clear Islamic stand on this matter, so that ISIS and its ideology will come to an end, and so that 12-year-old boys will not follow this ideology and be killed. The victims of ISIS are not just Yazidis. It is all the peoples..."

 

 

Interviewer: "Including many Arabs and Muslims..."

 

 

Nadia Murad: "And perhaps most of the Muslims in Syria, but they have not taken slave-girls from any people or minority except the Yazidis."

 

 

Interviewer: "Perhaps you don't know? Or do you have information about it? The face that you haven't witnessed anyone does not mean that there are no Arab slave-girls."

 

 

Nadia Murad: "I haven't seen any, but over 1,500 Yazidi women, girls, and children were liberated in Syria and Iraq, and now you can ask them. None saw anyone but Yazidis."

 

 

Interviewer: "But perhaps different things happened in different groups. I don't know..."

 

 

Nadia Murad: "And perhaps if Arab women were taken as slave-girls, ISIS would have said so."

 

 

Interviewer: "Does the fact that a small number of Arabs joined ISIS - as you recounted happened when they reached your area - justify Yazidi militias preventing the Arabs from returning to areas in Sinjar from which ISIS withdrew? Has the victim turned into the executioner, perhaps?"

 

 

Nadia Murad: "Many Muslims left Sinjar. The Muslims... The family that helped me was from Mosul. To this day I remember what they said before I left their home at dawn. It was a poor family, and the man began to cry and said: Forgive me that we couldn't feed you well these days. I cannot forget these words. But the Yazidis who say that the Muslims in their region attacked them - they were their neighbors yet they did those things - we honestly cannot live alongside them. But if we are given protection, and the peace returns, we Yazidis can coexist with all the peoples..."

 

 

Interviewer: "It sounds as if you are saying that the Muslims must not return to your region, that you cannot coexist with them..."

 

 

Nadia Murad: "I'm not saying that none must return, but those who joined ISIS and were happy about what was happening must be held accountable. They must be placed on trial."