SGBV

Indeed, the terrorist organization Da’esh abducted over 6,500 Yazidi women and children. For two years, four months and eighteen days, our women and girls have been sold in slave markets and have been subjected to sexual slavery and the slave trade in the worst phenomenon of modern history, because Da’esh has taken us back to the age of slavery and the slave trade, where a twelve-year- old girl is sold for a pack of cigarettes. Those crimes are an embarrassment to humankind. The international community remained silent in the face of all that has happened and is happening still.

Since 3 August 2014, the suffering of Yazidi has continued. Women, in particular, and indeed, Yazidi mothers have to choose between being raped themselves or having their own children raped before their very eyes. That is how we are treated by Da’esh. The virginity of our girls has become the portal to paradise, according to the laws and ideals of Da’esh.

When selected areas have been reopened, we find the mass graves of Yazidi men, women and even disabled people. Yazidis have often been the victims of murder. If the international community does not provide us with protection, other groups will commit similar crimes and once again thousands of women and girls will become sexual slaves.

We cannot compromise with the honour and dignity of our women and girls. I would ask members to imagine for a few seconds that their son or daughter became the object of a lucrative trade by terrorists or was brainwashed and became a terrorist. Those are very sad images, but unfortunately we them experience every day. That is the reality we witness daily; it is a twenty-first century reality. Our women and our children are brought to slave markets, much like in medieval times. How can the human conscience stand for that? More than 6,500 Yazidi women were abducted but no military operation was carried out to free them. Where is justice? More than 3,000 women and children were freed by various means through the help of an office of the Government of Kurdistan entrusted with the affairs of kidnapped individuals and others.

They need to be provided with consistent support to face the problems of genocide and sexual enslavement.