2023-04-24 13:43:40
In Iraqi Kurdistan, Daesh jihadists have captured and sexually enslaved many women from the Yazidi minority. Upon release, their children were rejected by the community, which forced them to abandon them. Their sad story is told in the documentary “Hawar, our banished children” by Pascale Bourgaux.
Ana, a young Yazidi woman, secretly crosses Kurdistan by car to find her daughter. She hasn’t seen her since she was ripped from her arms, when she was still a baby, because she was the child of a rape committed by a jihadist. And in the Yazidi community, children of the Islamic State group are not raised, his father and uncle explained to him. This scene is to be seen at the beginning of “Hawar, our banished children”.
“The Yazidis have always been persecuted,” said Pascale Bourgaux on Monday in Tout Un Monde. “It’s a minority that lives mainly in northern Iraq, in Kurdistan. On August 3, 2014, when Daesh decided to invade Iraq from Syria, they (the jihadists, editor’s note) plan along the way the destruction of Yazidi villages, the massacres – mainly of men – and the kidnapping of women to convert them into sexual slaves, to marry them by force; to found what they hoped for: an Islamic state”, says the director of this film screened in world premiere on Saturday at the Visions du Réel festival, in Nyon.
“Universal History of Rape Children”
The story of Ana and her daughter is sadly widespread. “All the women who were taken away by Daesh that day and the following ones were given to the fighters as a reward for their services. They were then sold, either in slave markets or on the internet (… ). All these women were young. Some were already mothers, others were virgins before marriage. A lot of them got pregnant”, describes Pascale Bourgaux.
They find themselves confronted with their family and their community
“By telling the story of Ana, this film tells the universal story of the children of rape and the children of the enemy’s rape”, sums up the reporter. Pascale Bourgaux evokes a “particularly complex” situation, because following having given birth and raised their children in captivity, they must face theirs following the release. “They find themselves confronted with their family and their community, who have decided not to raise the children of the enemy, because the blood of terrorists runs in their veins.”
The Islamic State massacred the Yazidi community in Iraq. The victims were buried in mass graves. In this photo, taken in 2021, Yazidis gathered in Kojo to bury them a second time, with dignity. [Archyde.com]
Role of the clergy
“It’s a community that strictly follows the rules laid down by the clergy, who are all-powerful,” analyzes the director. The Yazidis follow their own monotheistic religion.
“The clergy, who are very conservative and patriarchal (…), once and for all decided that the families, once they got their daughters back from captivity, had to deal with this problem of children. So they were abandoned. This are obviously forced abandonments in orphanages and institutions in the region.”
Let’s give up on the way back
This abandonment often occurs just following the liberation, explains Pascale Bourgaux, on the way back from the liberated city or from the border area to the refugee camp. In the car that takes them, the discussion begins.
>> Also read: Three years following the genocide, the nightmare of Yazidis in Iraq continues
“Yazidi girls don’t have the ability to oppose their father,” the reporter said. “Often, they are lied to. They are told: ‘don’t worry, my darling, you can come back to see your child in two or three days. But that’s not true! Once they have returned to a camp refugees, the trap is closing in on them. These women are not autonomous. They cannot say: ‘I am taking a car or a taxi to go see my child. They do not even know where their child is, because “They left it somewhere on the road. We don’t always tell them where they are. They don’t sign the paper. There is obviously no consent”, explains Pascale Bourgaux.
In search of her child, at all costs
Some women, helped by people in the community or organizations such as the ICRC, still manage to initiate searches and find traces of their children. This is the case of Ana.
But that does not mean that they have come to the end of their troubles. “They still have to manage to get there,” underlines Pascale Bourgaux.
Many children are illegally adopted
Ana, she had to lie to her family, on the pretext of participating in a conference of victims. She flew to the orphanage where her daughter lives. Ana only had 48 hours to do the maternity recognition papers so that her daughter wouldn’t be adopted.
Other women and children are not so lucky. “Many children are adopted illegally,” notes Pascale Bourgaux. “Mothers are never aware. Some mothers know that their child has been adopted, but will never manage to recover it, except for international help.”
Remained alongside their captors
Not all detainees have been released since 2019 and the fall of the Islamic State group in Iraq. Some were taken by jihadists abroad, to Saudi Arabia, Chechnya or Yemen. “Others, knowing that they would have to abandon their children if they returned to their families, decided to stay with their executioners. They preferred to stay with their rapist so as not to lose their child”, notes the director.
This rejection of children born of rape is found everywhere around the globe, she adds, specifying that her film is not once morest the Yazidis. On the contrary, it aims to bring this community “to think regarding this problem”. Pascale Bourgaux adds that some “moderate” Yazidis are in favor of the integration of this banished offspring.
Interview by Eric Guevara-Frey
Adaptation web: Antoine Michel
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