CÎLAN ROJ

Shengal (Sinjar)-Yazidi people from all ages still remember what they were subjected to when ISIS entered Shengal on August 3, 2014 and committed a genocide against them. When Shengal is mentioned, everyone remembers pain, death, massacre, displacement, rape, the sale of Yazidi women in slave markets and the betrayal of 12,000 KDP Peshmerga members who handed over Yazidis to ISIS. On August 3, 2014, ISIS attacked the Yazidis in Shengal due to the betrayal of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the conspiracy of international powers. ISIS brutally killed thousands of Yazidis, including women and children, and abducted thousands of Yazidi women and girls and sold them in slave markets. Those who managed to flee the brutality of ISIS were forced to immigrate to different countries all around the women.

 Some of the Yazidi women, who were sold in slave markets, have been rescued while thousands of Yazidi women are still in the hands of ISIS.  However, many incredible success stories and miracles also took place during the genocide.

She gave birth to her son while fleeing ISIS

One of these stories is the story of Gozê Îsmaîl and her son Şervan, who is now 10 years old. When ISIS attacked Shengal, Gozê Îsmaîl was pregnant. She fled to the mountains with her family to avoid being captured by ISIS. Gozê Îsmaîl carried her son inside of her womb for nine months, protecting him from everything and waiting with great excitement for her child to be born. When Şervan was born, she felt sad instead of happy because she gave birth to her son while fleeing ISIS. She was told, “Leave him under a tree because you cannot protect him”. Although she did not have enough breast milk to feed her baby, she did not give up protecting her baby.

 Gozê Îsmaîl told NuJINHA what they were subjected to during the genocide with following words:

“When we heard that ISIS would attack us, we were in Tilezêre and it was 1 a.m. Everyone started fleeing. I was pregnant in labor pain. We called a vehicle. I got in the vehicle; however, my husband and my son stayed there because there was no space for them and they had to walk. At 2 a.m., we heard that ISIS had arrived in Cidalê. When ISIS began to attack, I was in labor pain. I gave birth to my son inside a house in the village of Qendil at 11 a.m. After a while, we were told that ISIS was on the way to attack the village. We stood up and began to flee to the mountains. We stopped near a tree and I leaned my back up against it. Then, I heard the voice of my mother saying, ‘Wake up, the ants are eating your son’. We had nothing to eat and I had no breast milk to feed my son. He always cried. My daughter was also very young and needed to drink milk. Before leaving our house, we prepared boxes of milk for children. I fed my son with that milk; however, he kept crying. His stomach was swollen and everyone told me that he would die.”

She named her son after seeing the fighters

Gozê Îsmaîl then realized that her son could not urinate. “It was night. I looked at his diaper but he hadn't urinated. My mother, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law came and we checked and realized that his urine flow was blocked. My mother had a needle in her dress collar and we used that needle to open the urinary blockage. I felt relieved when he urinated. There was a woman there and she told me that her daughter grew up and she could feed my son. She fed my son twice every day. We spent nine days in the mountains without food and water. We ate whatever we could find on the way. Then, we saw guerrillas and they opened a corridor for us. When we saw the fighters, my son was 20 days old. I had not named my son until then because I did not believe that either my son or we would survive. After seeing the fighters, I named my son Şervan because he was born in a time of war and the guerrillas rescued us.”

‘The genocidal policy continues’

Gozê Îsmaîl had not known anything about the fighters until ISIS attacked them. “We had not seen any fighters before. The fighters sometimes visited us. As we got to know them, we trusted them. My other son was killed by ISIS. There are still thousands of Yazidi women in the hands of ISIS, and the genocidal policy against the Yazidis continues. I do not want any children to experience what we experienced. Yazidi women and the Yazidi community should never forget the genocide and the betrayal. I call on all Yazidis living in camps to return to Shengal.”

‘I like my name’

When Gozê Îsmaîl told us her story and the birth of Şervan, Şervan, who had probably heard her story many times, listened to the story of his birth with a smile on his face. We asked him if he knows his birth story and the meaning of his name. “Yes, I know my birth story and the meaning of my name,” he answered. “I was born in a time of war. Meanwhile, the fighters arrived and rescued us and my mother named me Şervan after seeing the fighters.” We asked him if he likes his name and he answered, “Yes, I like my name.”

Şervan wants to serve his community when he grows up. “I will be a doctor and serve my people because I want to heal the wounds of my people. Yazidi children should forget the genocide against their community.”