Female victims of ISIL given a voice in a journalistic-style workshop

Can simply telling a story keep hope alive and bring justice one step closer?

A bride who fled the day before her wedding. A student who ran away with her books. Two stories from women who’ve lost everything but remain determined to speak out.

“We are the victims of ethnic cleansing,” says Nuha Al Fihdawy, a 25-year-old Yazidi woman from Bashiqa, who now lives in Erbil as a refugee.

She is one of tens of thousands of Yazidis who fled from persecution by the terror group ISIL when its army attacked northern Iraq last summer, raping, trafficking and killing Yazidi women and children. The Yazidi community put the number of women and girls missing at 3,500 in December last year.

“We are all refugees, Christian, Muslim, Yazidi,” Al Fihdawy says. She is one of a dozen Iraqi and Kurdish female refugees who have had the chance to tell their stories this week during a five-day workshop in Erbil, Iraq, run by the AFP Foundation, the news organisation that usually trains journalists in developing countries, and Chime for Change. The latter is a charitable organisation founded by Gucci, which aims to support women and girls through education and initiatives to raise awareness about the unique challenges women face.

The aim of this week’s workshop is to help women to own their life stories and learn how to use narrative journalistic techniques to tell them better.

“We have heard quite a lot about Yazidis and Christians in Iraq, but they have tended to be portrayed only as victims. We want these women to be able to own their own narrative,” says Jo Weir, the programme manager, who has more than 25 years’ experience working with ­journalists.

“Despite suffering and hardships, they have kept their dignity and humour. Many of their stories are about perseverance and hope. But, they also want people to know about their plight and their desire for a better life.”

Al Fihdawy also reminds those around her of other massacres of the ancient religious minority in the more distant past.

“My story starts with the old massacres that my grandmother told me about, because at that time they didn’t have the media attention that we have today. I will link those massacres to my life and what we are witnessing today,” she says.

“I want a revolution in how the world helps us. They are helping us just with food but we want ‘real’ help to be able to live in our homes in safety and with dignity … Our history and civilisation started in Iraq: if we leave our country, we are helping ISIL to eliminate Yazidis,” she says.

As ISIL continues to plague parts of Iraq and Syria, its victims, particularly followers of other religions like Yazidis, Assyrians and Christians, continue to run in fear for their lives.

“I still have fears that ISIL may do this in Erbil too – where we are now,” Al Fihdawy says, echoing other refugee women’s fears.

“The participants all come from towns and villages that are now under control by Daesh [ an alternative name for ISIL]. Most had to flee their homes and move to Erbil overnight,” Weir says. “Many of them are living in extremely difficult circumstances without jobs and in crowded small spaces. They lost their possessions, their documents and even their family photographs.”

Mariane Pearl, a journalist and the author of A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl, and Randa Habib, an award-winning journalist and the director for the Middle East and North Africa at the AFP Foundation, are the instructors for this workshop.

Some of the stories that they hear include that of a 24-year-old bride who prepared for two years for her wedding day. She decorated the room in her in-laws’ house where she and her husband would live, buying furniture, curtains and other necessities. Her wedding dress was ready, their guests invited and the wedding arrangements all prepared.

“Four days before the wedding, Daesh came to her village and she had to flee overnight, leaving everything. She came to Erbil and two months later she did marry her fiancé but her honeymoon was spent in a crowded house where they share a room with 16 people,” Pearl says. “They still live there.”

Then there’s the story of a young woman who dreamed of becoming a doctor. She was doing her baccalaureate exams before entering university.

“While the students were writing their exams in Qaraqowsh [near Mosul], they could hear panic in the town because Daesh was coming. She stayed to finish her exam but Daesh destroyed all of the paperwork with the results. So, while fleeing to Erbil, she had to bring her heavy books and study during the trip,” Pearl says.

“She wrote her exam again two days after arriving in Erbil and received a score of 98 per cent. She is now studying to be a doctor in Kirkuk, despite the danger, and hopes to help other refugees.”

Many of the women's stories will be published on the Chime for Change website (www.chimeforchange.org). It's also hoped that the women will reach a wide audience; the workshop is also being filmed. "This is the first workshop in what we hope will be a series," Weir says.

“We have been surprised at how much these refugee women really want people to know their stories. They hope that by publishing them, people will not forget about them and will help them,” Weir concludes.

rghazal@thenational.ae

Rym Ghazal is a senior features writer at The National.