Zehra Doğan/JINHA

DUHOK – After Daesh attacked Shengal in August, the Êzîdî women survivors now living in Baadrê village near the Southern Kurdish city of Duhok say they do not know how they will recover from the trauma.

Thousands of Êzîdî women found their lives changed in an instant one morning, when Daesh gangs launched their August 3, 2014 assault on the people of Shengal, beheading men and boys and abducting women and children. For Êzîdîs, this is the "73^rdedict"—that is, the latest in a long history of regional powers and empires calling for their extermination. What was a sensational media event for world public opinion was the moment that changed these women's lives.

Many Êzîdî women fled to Duhok, in the province neighboring Shengal. Theyset up plastic tents in the empty buildings and construction sites of the city and its surrounding villages. One of these villages is Baadrê.Many of the women residents, like Sêvê Silêman, are the only surviving members of their families here; her male relatives were killed, her five sisters captured and killed in captivity. She saysthat what relatives she still has alive are in Daesh captivity.

Families gather in a different house in the village every day, telling their stories to one another as a way to attempt to overcome the trauma they are living with. Many say that self-defense units like the YPJ and YBŞ (Shengal Resistance Units) are the only answer. They are anxious to see the thousands of Êzîdî women still in Daesh captivity be rescued.

Şaha Meto Kasım was the only person in her family, from the village of Koço near Shengal, who reached freedom. She now lives in Baadrê. Daesh members killed her husband and sons. Her daughter is still in captivity.

"The only thing I want is for my daughter to be rescued," she said. "It's like I've lost my mind here. I'm running this way and that. My pain doesn't let me sit still."

Naima Bişar says she can't sleep because her children are still in Daesh' hands. Her siblings, husband, nieces, nephews and cousins were all killed. She called for more organizations to follow the example of the platform "Struggle for Women Detained by Daesh," which recently brought several escaped Êzîdî women and children to the village to be reunited with their family.

"When I was cooking for them, inside I was always saying, 'I hope it poisons you,'" said F.A., 50, who was one of the older women forced to do cooking and cleaning for the gangs. "They raped my daughter in front of my eyes, the scum."When the 24-hour labor made her sick, Daesh released her and other sick older captives a little over a month ago in order not to have to care for them.

"When I was there, I saw a lot of women impregnated by their rapists," said N.H., who escaped three months ago. "Thinking about them, I'm losing my mind. There's no feeling worse than being pregnant with your rapist's child," she said. She said that all peoples needed a self-defense system, and that self-defense might have saved the Êzîdî people from the massacre.

(cm)