The Mosul Dar Al-Zahur Orphanage

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The orphanage in Mosul houses both children orphaned in the ISIL attack on Sengal and children born to Ezidi women after sexual assault in ISIL captivity.

The Dar Al-Zahur orphanage (House of Flowers) was one of the places occupied by ISIL during their 2014 capture of Mosul. Now an orphanage, this building was used by ISIL as a training center for young boys abducted by ISIL and used as child soldiers.

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 this orphanage.

Sakine Muhammet Yunus

I had planned on conducting this interview in the orphanage premises, but was unable to, after being told the Iraqi visa issued to me in Erbil airport was not valid for entry into Mosul.

Is the barracks used by ISIL to house and train child soldiers now an orphange?

Yes, this building which was used as barracks by ISIL during their occupation of Mosul is now a house for children. Some of the children are those who lost their families in the ISIL assault, some are children born of rape. ISIL occupied Mosul for three years and left behind the legacy of an angry populace and 13 thousand orphans.

ISIL wanted to create a radicalized generation. Abducting children and creating training centers for them was necessary for the group to spread and thrive. After taking Mosul, around a third of the city was under its Sharia law. Militants burnt all the textbooks and created its own educational curriculum. At the beginning of their rule, there were several families which did not wish to sent their children to its schools and the group forced them to through threats.

One bullet plus one bullet...

What was their educational curriculum?

At the very start of their occupation, school teachers were replaced by armed militants from the group. Elementary school children were taught mathematics through formulas such as one bullet plus one bullet makes two bullets, two bombs plus two bombs make four bombs. Classes on the arts, philosophy and law in universities were cancelled.

ISIL did not stop with turning schools into Sharia institutes. Many schools were turned into military barracks and camps.

The group sent many children aged five and above to special schools, of which this building was only one where they were given military training and where the curriculum was different from the other schools.

Many of these children were abducted from Shia, Turkmen. Ezidi and Christian families. ISIL taught these children their own brand of Islam and taught them to see everyone who did not subscribe to their ideology as 'Kafir' and infidels deserving of death. These abducted children were shown videos of executions of 'Kafirs' and once their military training was completed, were sent to combat zones in Syria and Iraq. Some of them were used as human shields or suicide bombers.

The figures for the number of child soldiers who died fighting under the ISIL and the number of abducted children are in broad agreement.

After ISIL was defeated in Mosul, we opened the doors of this place to orphaned children. The building had not been much damaged from the outside, but refitting the interior was a heartbreaking enterprise. We saw evidence of how ISIL had brainwashed these children and sent them off to their deaths and it was very difficult to forget what we saw.

Which groups of children now live in this orphanage?

We ave children who were left orphans by the ISIL, children left behind after the fall of ISIL, often young whose identities we have not yet been able to confirm as well children born of rape who were brought here by their families. We are careful to separate highly radicalized children who attended ISIL schools and training centers and children whose families were killed. Adolescent children who have been highly radicalized are kept in camps where their widowed mothers live or in prisons for adolescents if they have been involved in fighting. The children of foreign ISIL members are kept in a prison in Baghdad.

We have not found it necessary to tell orphaned children, both of whose parents were ISIL members to conceal their identities. Children learn to protect themselves very quickly and these children tell others, "Our families were killed by the ISIL."

There were a few children who had been highly radicalized. In the early days of this orphanage, a young boy Muhammet, 10 years old, whose father had been the head of the Sniper Division of ISIL was brought here. He had been with his father and other ISIL militants during their last stand at Mosul castle. He saw his father die along with dozens of other ISIL militants.

He used to describe to others how his father used to kill people and boast that he could use a rifle well himself. Muhammet was behaving in the way that seemed normal to himself but keeping in mind the sensitivities and trauma of the other children, we sent him to a different center where he could learn to distance himself from the ISIL and his development could be monitored by psychologists.

Becoming children again

What kind of center?

The Mosul center for Women and Children has found that nearly 75 percent of the children living on the streets of Mosul come from families with ISIL links. This was after all a group that created a state of its own and occupied Mosul for over three years. And even if the child's family were not members of ISIL, the child had encountered the ideology of the group in its schools or on the streets. All of them had to some extent been politicized, but they had not of course been brainwashed to the extent of those who joined the group. Children, both of whose parents had been ISIL fighters have found it very hard to adapt to normal life. Even for children as young as 6, perhaps the only evidence of them being children was their physical appearance.

Were these children able to learn how to be children again?

They had been taught everything except how to be children. It was Haram to watch TV! Their families' admonitions had converted them to adults. They used to track the times of prayer and perform their prayers in a systematic manner. Instead of watching the cartoons we showed them, play games or draw, they would sit in groups and study the Koran and hold discussions praising the ISIL.

"Most of these children had been brought here from areas that had seen months of fighting. Most of them had also been physically injured. They had seen their parents fighting the 'Enemy, the Iraqi Army' and many of them had even seen their parents fall in fighting".

Their families' admonitions had taught them that everyone who was not a member of ISIL was an enemy. It was difficult communicating with them. And when we did get through to them, they told us similar things to what Muhammet, son of the sniper did. That watching TV was Haram, entertainment was Haram. It was a huge struggle for us to help children both of whose parents were ISIL militants return to normal life. But we made progress and at the very least, they are no longer as radical as they used to be and are slowly learning to be children again.

"These children spent months in areas where active fighting took place. They grew up with the sight of blood and death, sometimes of their parents. They need psychological counseling but unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide this needed help."

The staff of this orphanage is composed of volunteers. But the selflessness of volunteers is inadequate for the task we face. Children who need sustained access to psychological help have suffered from our inability to provide it to them.

Many children were brought here from war zones, sometimes after been evacuated from under rubble where they had been trapped among dead bodies. This orphanage was given official status in 2016 by the Mosul directorate. We have started receiving government aid starting this year, but it is far from adequate and we have been supporting this center through donations.

Enmity gives way to brotherhood

Even if there were children who had been politicized when they came here, would you believe it, the children are all now like brothers and sisters. Some children we could do little about. When they first came here, these politicized children, like Muhammet, used to praise the ISIL and this was met with rage from children who had lost their families to the group.

On one side, there was uncontrollable rage and the desire for revenge, on the other, praise for their families. These are children we are speaking of, at most six or seven years of age. And from the beginning, despite living in the same place, they were at each others' throats.

This was a highly dangerous situation from the perspective of these children's mental health. In the beginning space was limited and we had to keep all children together, but later, we found ways of transferring highly politicized children to a different center.

Other children from ISIL familes, who had not been highly politicized learnt to hide their past and in a beautiful testament to the innocence of childhood, became friends with children who had lost their families to the ISIL. However, there have a been a few cases when their identities were revealed and we had to send them to a different center as well.

I think it is important to keep all children together to the extent possible. Otherwise, this division could lead to enmity in the future. We need to do all we can to prevent this from happening.

Is society angry with these "Children of Fighters"?

Society, the government, the legal system, they are all angry. Even my closest friends have asked me "Why do you care about these children of killers?" My answer has been, "The danger is not from those who stay in orphanages, but from those who are left out in the open." There are many children and familes who were flagged in investigations by security forces and are now being held in prisons. Indeed, even rumor of having been affiliated with ISIL is enough to destroy a family. In many cases, relatives of ISIL militants have been prosecuted for providing material help under Iraq's anti-terror laws.

Sometimes the only difference is in not being hanged. Even if a family is acquitted by court of having worked with ISIL, society shuns them and permanently stained by this accusation of association, they are unable to avail of any public support.

In many cases, children of school age were hounded out by the school administration and thrown out onto the street. All around Mosul, you will see children making a few cents after begging all day long and using the money to buy bread to take home to their widowed mothers. And it is not merely children from ISIL families who have experienced this, but also children from families who did not or could not flee from ISIL or those against whom unfounded accusations of having worked with the group have been leveled. These orphans and widows are at the mercy of this unremitting hatred on the part of society and are unable to seek refuge anywhere.

I fear for what will happen to or come from those perennially stained by accusations of having worked with ISIL. More than half the children living on the streets have a living mother or at least close relatives. But because of their past or following mere accusations, they have been cast out onto the street. And not just by their relatives. There have even been cases when widows of ISIL militants have sent their children away, fearing for their children's safety.

It is said that ISIL used even their own children as bait.

Yes, this was a regular occurence. One such child is now at this orphange, a child named Hamdi.

Now two years old, his father was an ISIL militant, we have not been able to learn anything about his mother. His father, in order to lure Iraqi soldiers, used him as bait, placing him in the middle of a street where fighting was raging. Three Iraqi soldiers who came to rescue him were picked off by ISIL snipers.

Little Hamdi was eventually rescued by armored vehicles but her stayed for hours under rubble and before they got there, was mauled by street dogs. The doctors at the hospital he was taken to could not save his right arm and had to amputate it at the elbow. There are many children at this orphanage who, like Hamdi were injured through the use their parents put them to.

Forgetting these children are innocent and rage towards them will open the door to severe problems in the future. If these children are seen as equivalent to their ISIL parents, this will lead to an even greater war in the future. People should think about the future of these children, rather than blame them for their parents misdeeds.

Are children who have been educated in ISIL schools and received arms training prosecuted? Can they be sentenced to death?

Children who have committed a crime and been found guilty may not be given capital punishment. As per the laws, the age of criminal responsibility is 9. Children between the ages of 15-17 can be sentenced to a maximum of 15 years and those aged 18-19 can be given upto life imprisonment.

There are hundreds of children currently on trial on a number of counts ranging from illegal entry into Iraq, being a member of ISIL and having committed violent crimes. These children are tried in children's courts. The easiest charge to prove is that of illegal entry, which carries a sentence of between 6 months and a year.

The prison term for being a member of ISIL is between 5-7 years. However, if they have participated in operations or committed violence, this can go upto 15 years. Over the past few months over 200 children between the ages 9-18 have been convicted of ISIL membership. Around 75 of these are female children. These children are being held in the Baghdad rehabilitation center under military control.

Those born under occupation?

After the nine month long fighting that ended in the eviction of ISIL from Mosul and Tel Afer, a large number of unaccompanied children were found, the youngest two months old, the eldest around 4 years of age. They were found in basements, amidst rubble or in bombed out buildings and given this, we think their mothers were either ISIL members or enslaved Ezido women.

There are hundreds of children about whom we do not yet know whether they are from Iraq or not. For the foreign children, those old enough to have started talking are more fortunate in that there is at least some chance that they might be located by relatives from their native countries. The infants are the least fortunate in this regard. Over 450 children found after the recapture of Mosul were found to be born of French nationals.

Apart from children born of Ezidi mothers and ISIL fathers, there are children born of women from several countries including Russia and Germany.

How many of the children in this orphanage are children born of Ezidi mothers and ISIL fathers?

Most of the women who had been kidnapped were rescued in the Mosul and Tel Afar regions. And most of the children now in the orphanage were also rescued from the same regions. From the information we got from authorities, these children were not born of ISIL women, dead or now in custody. But this, please note, is an informal assessment. The security forces and we think that a majority of these children were born of Ezidi mothers.

Even recently, five children born to Ezidi mothers and ISIL fathers were brought here by their mother's relatives. They have all been adopted though and are no longer here.

If no enquiries into a child from family members are received for a year or two, the courts can rule that the child may be given up for adoption after a six month inquiry.

Isn't six months too short a period after which to give up a child for adoption, given that the war can scarcely said to have ended?

There are thousands of children who survived the war having lost their parents and our facilities are utterly inadequate. Given this, six months can even be too long a period. The children who are adopted are usually under four years of age. When it comes to older children, who family members may be able to identify, we usually take their photographs and share them with government agencies and on social media, hoping any surviving family members will get in touch.

And when they do, after confirming kinship and verifying that they have had no links to the ISIL, we reunite the child with its family.

Are there families which have sent children to the orphanage but who have wished the child not be given up for adoption?

Of the five Ezidi children brought here recently, that I mentioned a while ago, for four of them the mothers told me they would return to take their children back in the future. They told me they would be moving abroad and would take their children with themselves when they did. All the four women had been held captive in Mosul. After being freed, they came here and stayed with their children for a few days. One of the mothers was a mere child, just 15-16 years of age. After a few days, an uncle of hers came here and took her away to their village, leaving the child behind.

I do not know if it was the uncle who forced her to leave her child behind, but she was weeping profusely as she left. I promised her I would send her a photo of the child every day.

And indeed, I even showed her her child over video chat on a few occasions. However, the child had been born prematurely and tragically, died a few days later. I didn't tell the mother this for a long time. But the strange thing was that even before that, she had stopped calling us.

I wonder after her. I tried calling her a few times but could not get through. I hope she is well.

They said they would take their children with them to the countries they were moving away to.

Were there any women who returned to take back their children?

None of the women wanted to leave their children here. They had become close to their children during their years of captivity and had come to love them dearly. But their families and community did not want a child born of rape. And these women were not able to fight back against this. And they all told me to avoid mentioning to anyone or on any document that these children's father were ISIL militants.

What were you able to do about this?

I told the officials who registered these children that these children's mothers were Ezidi and entreated them to not give up the child for adoption. I told them that these women would move to a foreign country and return in a year or two to take their children back again. But the government or the courts did not grant these children any special treatment and registered them as Muslim as per the laws of Iraq and started the process of giving these children up for adoption. One reason for this that child who has not been registered cannot access any social service be it being able to go to school or get medicines from the hospital when sick.

Is every child in the orphanage registered as Muslim and why?

Yes, this is what the laws of Iraq mandate. Any child whose parents are not known and who will live in Iraq and who has been registered in an orphanage is from then on a Muslim citizen of Iraq.

Dozens of children without papers

Are there any non-Muslim children who have been registered as Muslim here? After all, despite being a country where the laws are based on the Sharia, this is a religiously diverse country.

This is a highly complex matter that will be debated extensively for years to come. But both this problem and the legislation that covers it is not new. A little while ago, we discussed how a child born of a Ezidi mother and a Muslim father is registered as Muslim.

There are a large number of children about whose parents we know little, leave alone their religion or ethnicity. And adding to this is that there are even children born of Iraqi muslim parents, both alive, who have birth certificated but no papers yet. There are a large number of children who have no access to public services. And do you know why? Because these children were born in hospitals in places when they were under ISIL control and have birth certificates issued by them. The Iraqi government does not recognize these birth certificates and refuses to issue these children papers.

The right to motherhood conditional : A Muslim child cannot be given to an Ezidi woman even if she is its natural mother.

You had mentioned four children born of Ezidi mothers who were given up for adoption. Did the adopting family have to be Muslim?

Yes, after a six month inquiry conducted by the courts, applications to adopt these children were evaluated. After verifying these families had the resources and were in good health and Muslim, the children were given in adoption.

If the mothers of one of these children had come here and asked for the child to be returned to her, what would have happened?

As per the laws of Iraq, a Muslim child cannot be given in custody to a Ezidi woman even if she were its' natural mother. Leyla was one of these mothers. Taken captive by ISIL in their 2014 attack on Sengal, she was ransomed by her husband and her family after freed after four years in captivity. Her husband and family did not want her child born of rape and left it here. Leyla returned after five months and sought to take back her year and a half old child. But the child had already been adopted. Even if the child had not been adopted, Leyla would not have been able to take it back. A Muslim child cannot be given to an Ezidi woman even if she is its natural mother.

This law is not specific to Ezidis. The same would have happened if she were Christian, for instance.

What did Leyla do when she learnt her child had been adopted?

She had come to Mosul from Sengal alone, without any accompanying family members. She spent days here trying to learn about her child. But every government office she went to told her the same thing : The child had been adopted and even it had still been here in this orphanage, she would not have been able to take it back. When Leyla tried to return to Duhok to her husband and her three children, her husband refused to take her back. She is now in a women's refuge in Suleymaniye.

Have there been any children born to Ezidi mothers and ISIL fathers who were enquired after by members of the father's family?

No, that hasn't happened. But there have been non Iraqi women married to ISIL militants who were able to get their children after a DNA test. The procedure for this is different. Most of these women send their children to their countries of origin.

The laws of Iraq do permit a Ezidi woman to register a child under her ID, but on the condition she convert to Islam. There are women who unable to bear to part from their children who have taken this step. But given the sensitivities of the Ezidi community and that these court cases are ongoing, I cannot say anything more on this matter.

What are your thoughts on the Ezidi Supreme Spiritual Council's proclamation that children born of ISIL fathers will not be accepted?

Before this proclamation was released, I went to meet Baba Seyh in Lalesh. I told him that the women and their children were innocent. But given the community's traditions and customs, they have the right to have made such a proclamation.

Tomorrow: Ezidi women are breaking the mould and remaking their society

Êzidî Women Speak Out: 'S/he is My Child'

Zozan's Family: You Have No Choice But to Give up Your Child for Adoption

Meyrem: We are Left With No Choice But to Leave for Afa

Two Sisters, Fahima and Rayan and Their Cousin Seher

One Day with Viyan and Mizgin

Leyla: The Only Thing That Keeps me Going is the Hope to See My Son Again

'Êzidî Women are Breaking the Mould and Remaking Their Society'

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