What hope! The Canadian businessman who created in September 2014 the humanitarian action “The Liberation of Christian Children and Yezidis of Iraq” -CYCI- comes on official visit to France. He will be accompanied by Nihad Barakat Shamo Alawsi, a young Daech survivor. She was released from sexual assault by our organization on October 15, 2015.
To date, the CYCI Foundation has saved 140 sex slaves from the claws of their captors; Provided financially for the transfer of thousands of refugees; Opened in partnership with the Greek Government, the Petra camp in Greece; Assisted more than 25,000 Yezidi, Christian and Muslim families in the Kurdish camps; Assisted refugees who fled Daech in an emergency. Because on August 3, 2014, the Islamic state attacks Sinjar in Iraq, kills about 10,000 Yezidis, captures 3,000 women. These massacres generate more than 450,000 displaced people. The UN describes the event as a “humanitarian tragedy”. This is genocide.
Indeed, Steve Maman sent me “the file”: Nihad Barakat Shamo Alawsi, so that finally the long-awaited visa of the young Nihad sees the day and that of Iraq, it moves to us, in Official visit to Paris in the course of June 2016. Very few sexual slaves are released and, when they are finally free, between trauma and shame, the majority of these women and girls prefer to And sink for many in a deep depression.
Nihad, an exemplary young Iraqi, decided to represent the voice of the women of her People, in agreement with the parents of Nihad and her brothers and sisters. In agreement with all CYCI officials and volunteers, we are committed to following Nihad in this way of speaking and helping him to be heard throughout the world. We will accompany Nihad so that she can testify and tell of her terrible experience as captive and prisoner of Daech. While in France we are waiting for his visa, other countries are already waiting for him.
In “the famous folder”, I discover the photos of the parents of Nihad, simple people, sitting on the floor on thick plaids, oriental like that is done there. The houses are modest but open. In the photos, Nihad’s dad, an old turbaned man, his mother, also has a covered head and a beautiful tanned face.
In the pictures of other closed faces, experienced by successive wars, ethnic cleansing, endless population displacement, poverty, despair, uncertain future … No smiles, Nihad’s brothers and sisters are numerous , Beautiful, alive. Her nephews and nieces are no longer children … The truth is read on their faces of innocent victims! For to read the truth in the newspapers, will never be as strong, as true as to see it on faces of innocent people. And Nihad brings with her, this palpable and painful truth by its mere presence.
I still discover so much, the life of Nihad who is noticed by a precarious existence in Kurdistan in the Iraqi region, surrounded by his family, his only wealth. A loving family who only seek peace and be able to practice the Yezidi religion bequeathed by their ancestors of Mesopotamia. While the fighters of the Islamic state, designated by the acronym Daech, use them as a privileged target, becoming prime prisoners of war.
They decapitated with their arms: Christian men, Yezidis men. Considered heretics, “Worshipers of Satan”. “These fools of God” sexually exploit women, they violate them sometimes up to 10 times a day. They re-virginise them and sell them to rich Saudi clients or offer them as gifts. Yezidis such as cattle, have become the product of a flourishing market, girls and women Yezidies sold as well as sought-after fruits and vegetables. Everything is bought and sold in the market of Mosul, a city of six million inhabitants on which the ayatollah holds all power. Islamic law allows these fighters to rape, kill, exterminate in the strictest chariatic legality. So they kidnap the Yezidi children and teach them to become suicide bombers once again in the name of Allah. On the pictures a lot of things that do not say but who get along, if you listen …
And I learn that some of the female members of Nihad’s family are still captives of Daech. What hope, but also a lot of pain on his beautiful face! Nihad lost everything, starting with her baby, which she had to give up to her sexual exploiters, to survive. She will come to France to talk about her history and how she was bought out by our organization -CYCI – but beyond her personal history that of the fate of women Yezidies, still captive sexual to the number of 3,000 hostages in Mosul.
With the arrival of Nihad in France, imprisoned 437 days by Daech, the reality comes to us and we will discover the course of a survivor of a “modern genocide”. While the world had promised the “never again that!” Postwar. Again, another people is exterminated in general indifference.
“Que cette lumière qui se voit, même, aux confins du monde, cette lumière si menue, éloigne l’obscurité.” Le monde se verra-t-il enfin autrement, à la lumière de la vérité? Cette lumière plus vive, aveuglante et insupportable parfois. Pourtant, il faudra s’y habituer pour agir. Et le sursaut commencera par l’implication française et politique dans le sort des Yézidis d’Irak. Dans l’aide financière et humanitaire auprès d’une population en voie d’extinction. Dans la mobilisation générale des politiques et de l’opinion publique mondiale. A ce jour, les Yézidis représentent moins d’un million, lorsqu’ils étaient encore, il y a 200 ans, deux fois plus nombreux.
Also in collaboration with the talented investigative journalist Isabelle Kersimon, we will try to write the story of Nihad Barakat Shamo Alawsi and through this “young girl courage”, this “Light of the Orient”, to testify of the fate of 3,000 women and children held hostage. And in the manner of Bernard-Henry Levy’s quest, “Who Killed Daniel Pearl? “Tracing the path of the murdered American Jewish journalist. We will investigate the kidnapping and captivity of Nihad in Iraq. We will be allowed to disclose certain confidential information about the captivity and release of Nihad Barakat Shamo Alawsi, previously ignored.
And it is with great pride and a touch of emotion that France will host this audacious project in June: meet a former Daech survivor to speak to the world … Be there!
Dear Nihad, we are looking forward to hearing from you!