The Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (TAJÊ) launched the campaign ‘Be the voice of self-defence against femicide’ on 8 March this year. TAJÊ's activities within the scope of the campaign have spread across Iraq and the world. One of the primary goals of the campaign is to rescue women held by ISIS. Most recently, Ezîze Xalid Elî was rescued by SDF forces with her 2 children in Hol Camp at the beginning of June.

TAJÊ Diplomacy Committee Member Suham Şengalî spoke to ANF, evaluating the first three months of the campaign and its results, the KDP's policy towards women, the young women who survived ISIS and the importance of Yazidi women developing an understanding of self-defence.

Suham Şengalî stated that YPG and YPJ fighters played a great role in the rescue of the captives from ISIS and said: "Many were martyred in the rescue operations. Hundreds of Yazidi girls, women and boys were rescued from the battle of Baxoz to the defeat of ISIS. There were also many Yazidi women and children among the families of ISIS who were resettled in Hol Camp. SDF forces continue to search for Yazidi prisoners in Hol Camp. There are many women who are afraid to reveal their identities and are not sure what their situation will be if they are rescued.

Suham Şengalî pointed out that the Yazidi prisoners held by ISIS were not only in the Hol Camp, but some of them were in cities such as Idlib, Serêkaniyê and Afrin under the occupation of the Turkish state and its gangs. She continued: "On the other hand, some of them were transferred to Turkey. The fate of thousands of Yazidi girls and women is not clear. We cannot give a clear figure because some of them are in mass graves, and some are in the hands of ISIS."

The KDP does not want rescued people to stay in Shengal

Suham Şengalî said that hundreds of children and women rescued by the YPG, YPJ and TAJÊ were handed over to their families. Şengalî said: "The fact that the rescued people are able to continue their lives in their own lands and communities is warmly welcomed by our society. However, the KDP is pursuing a dirty policy against them. The KDP's main policy is to prevent the survivors from staying in Shengal. Contacting their families as soon as they arrive in Shengal, the KDP wants to distort all the facts by taking them to a school affiliated to Nechirvan Barzani in Bashur with financial means. They lie that these people were rescued by the KDP. In order to hide the truth and to lie, they take the rescued prisoners out of Shengal."

‘The KDP'S policy is no different from that of ISIS’

Suham Şengalî stated that the prisoners freed from ISIS were evacuated by the KDP from Iraq together with their families. "They want to evacuate Shengal using this method. So far, hundreds of surviving Yazidi women have been taken to Europe in this way. The KDP's policy is not different from ISIS' policy. ISIS took women and children away from their culture and language in 2014. Now, the KDP is doing the same thing with different methods and a special war. In this way, the KDP wants to make the Yazidis who witnessed the betrayal in 2014 forget it. They are trying to make these people forget the massacre under the name of ‘treatment’ so that they will not pursue their case. They want to eliminate the witnesses of ISIS massacres and KDP betrayal.”

Suham Şengalî stated that, despite this dirty policy and special warfare methods of the KDP, some of the women who were freed from captivity live in their own lands with their own culture and belief and continue this struggle. Şengalî said the following regarding the importance of these people staying in Shengal: "Girls were raped, sold and enslaved when they were 10 years old. They were children themselves, but they were raped and gave birth to children. These people can only overcome and heal within their own society. The ones they take to Europe are not kept within their families, they are sent to special places, they are made to forget the edict under the name of treatment.”

‘The campaign is carried out on a global level’

Pointing to TAJE's campaign ‘Be the voice of self-defence against femicide’, Suham Şengalî underlined the following: "Our aim is to rescue the captive women and protect them. This campaign is for these women not to experience such practices again and to defend themselves. The nature of the campaign is self-defence. Every Yazidi woman should be able to defend herself against any attack wherever she is. We want to develop an awareness and defence perspective for Yazidi women. Within the scope of the campaign, we worked with Iraqi women, Middle Eastern women and international women. Work will continue in different ways to ensure the success of this campaign. Our main work is for women to develop a common defence struggle.”