Treacherous road to freedom for one Yazidi family

For Iraq’s half a million Yazidis, ISIL’s lightning advance towards Sinjar has shattered their belief in a peaceful coexistence with the Sunni Arabs that make up the majority of Nineveh province, writes Florian Neuhof

Gawry Khalaf Hussein, left and her daughter, Leila, escaped to the Karbato refugee camp near Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan after fleeing from ISIL militants in Tal Afar. Florian Neuhof for The National

Dohuk, Iraq // After eight long months of captivity, it took Maher Kuder only moments to decide to escape. His sudden determination was the result of a stark choice: to make a run for it, or do nothing to prevent relatives as young as twelve being forced into marriage with ISIL fighters.

At 17, Maher was the oldest of the 25 children and youths from his extended family held by the extremists in Tal Afar, a town in northern Iraq. They had been among the thousands of Yazidis swept up by ISIL as they advanced on Sinjar in northern Iraq last August, capturing the city and laying siege to the mountain range behind it.

ISIL regards Yazidis, whose religion predates Islam and Christianity, as heretics they can enslave at will. Women in particular are a coveted prize, and Yazidi women have been sold into slavery and forcibly married off to fighters en masse.

But with their military advances into the Yazidi heartlands stalled, the militants were struggling to still their thirst for rape, and they began turning to younger victims.

One day early in April, Maher’s captors told them that the girls aged between 12 and 14 would be taken away the next morning. Together with his cousin Yamina, Maher urged the others to muster the courage to flee.

“I told the girls that they would be taken as brides. They were scared but I told them that they don’t have a choice but to run away,” he says, speaking to The National in the Karbato refugee camp near Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan.

They set off at 11 that night, remembers Gawry Khalaf Hussein, the only adult in the group. Gawfy had stayed in Tal Afar in spite of being offered her freedom by ISIL, who earlier this month handed over 200 Yazidi women and children to Kurdish forces guarding Kirkuk.

The 45 year-old mother had not joined them, refusing to leave behind her two daughters.

But when the group slipped out of Tal Afar under the cover of darkness, Gawry’s thoughts were not only about the perilous journey ahead.

She had been able to cling on to one of her daughters, but the other had been taken to Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city that was overrun by ISIL last June. With a heavy heart, the mother had to leave one child behind to save the other.

In the pitch black, Maher and Yamina led the way towards Mount Sinjar. ISIL had failed to capture the extended plateau, thwarted by a counterattack by battle-hardened Syrian Kurds and US airstrikes. The mountain can be seen from Tal Afar, and the young Yazidis knew that if they reached it, they would be safe.

When day broke, the group hid in a field among the grass that in springtime can be several feet tall. They knew that the ISIL guards would come looking for them, and to keep the youngest quiet, they fed them sleeping tablets they had been given by militants.

They continued their journey after nightfall, struggling to stay together while stumbling through fields and ravines. They had little food, and could only quench their thirst if they came across a stream.

After hiding anxiously for another day, the Yazidis set out for their third night of walking.

Maher, preoccupied and unable to see the ground in front of him, fell and broke his arm, the pain adding to the sense of urgency. With the meagre food supplies exhausted and the children getting weaker, time was running out. Exhausted, they reached the mountain before sunrise.

With his arm hung in a sling, Maher sits in a crowded tent and quietly tells his story. His eyes gaze into the distance, there is no swagger in his voice. He is remarkably slight, but there is nothing youthful to his appearance.

He is worried about his parents and siblings, who remain in ISIL-held territory. His cousin Yamina has gone to live with her mother and an uncle at another camp.

His voice remains calm throughout, but his eyes narrow when asked about ISIL. “If I can, I will fight, and I will kill them,” he says firmly.

For Iraq’s half a million Yazidis, ISIL’s lightning advance towards Sinjar has shattered their belief in a peaceful coexistence with the Sunni Arabs that make up the majority of Nineveh province.

Several Yazidis that escaped ISIL-held territory told The National that many of the ISIL militants they encountered were from neighbouring Sunni tribes. This experience has heightened age-old anxieties. “They want to rid Iraq of Yazidis. Everything that is happening to us is because we are Yazidis,” said a Yazidi man in another refugee camp near Dohuk, who does not want to be identified because his family is still being held captive.

“We cannot live with Arabs any more. They will try and kill us again,” says Maher. Like most Yazidis in the camps, he wants to leave Iraq.