Nurcan Keskin

Khidher Domle from the Women and Children Support Office speaks about the problems facing the Êzidî community, the plight of children born of sexual assault, mothers’ rights and the women’s solidarity movement.

We met with Sakine Muhammet Yunus, Head of the Directorate of Women's and Children's affairs at the Governorate of Mosul, in Erbil and spoke about the uncertain future facing the children in the orphanage of Mosul.

Leyla, 28, is staying at a women’s refuge in Sulaymaniyah. When she left her son in an orphanage, she did not know that he would be registered as a Muslim and given up for adoption within a week.

Viyan left her son Cihat behind in Mosul, "I could not mother a child born to me of rape." Mizgin's husband, on account of her abduction by ISIL blamed her for her plight and rejecting her, has chosen to punish her by filing for divorce.

Unable to accept her family's condition of giving up her children, Rayan, a young Êzidî woman, is still in the El Hol camp with her two children born in ISIL captivity. Her sister Fahima and cousin Seher are the only ones in her family sympathizing with her.

Meyrem was only a few days married when ISIL entered her village in 2014. She remembers giving birth next to another woman who had died in childbirth and breastfeeding her infant. Her husband has now become a father to both these young girls but having been ostracized by their relatives, are waiting for resettlement in Canada.

Zozan, now 19, was just 14 when she taken captive by ISIL. She will deliver her second child three months from now: “Yes, I will remember all that happened to me every time I look into my child’s face, but abandoning her will not make me forget either."

Many Ezidi women who returned from ISIL captivity with children have faced rejection by their community. The series based on interviews with some of these women will run for seven days starting Monday.