Many of them are women and children. Khairi Murad is the sister of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nadia Murad. This is her story.

My name is Khairi Murad, and I am Nadia's sister.

The Yazidi are displaced in different camps in Iraq. Khairi Murad is located in one of them in northern Iraq.

+Genocide of the Yazidis

ISIL is a terrorist organization. Leading ISIL members called the Yazidi ‘infidels’, ‘apostate’ and ‘devil worshippers’ and systematically aimed to eradicate them as a religious group. This is genocide, as defined by the UN Genocide Convention. Mass killings, sexual violence, and systematic persecution are some of the methods employed by ISIL since the genocide started with the Sinjar massacre in 2014.

From 15 August 2014 until 24 January 2015, I was a prisoner of ISIL.

"We were four sisters and 12 brothers. Nadia was the youngest. Before the genocide in 2014, she was a student."

"In the 2014 genocide, when our village Kocho in northern Iraq was destroyed, I lost six brothers and my mother."

On 15 August, ISIL gathered us in a school and took all the women and children to the second floor of the school building. They took all the men to the outskirts of the village and killed them.

More than 5 000 Yazidi were executed by ISIL
between 2014 and 2016.

The next day, ISIL sold us, forced us into their black cars, and took us away. Nadia and I were sold separately as slaves.

Many of the women who were taken as slaves made several attempts to escape.

I visited our village after my escape. I went to the place where the women had been slaughtered. They were all buried together.

+Mass graves after the genocide

Efforts are being made to find and investigate mass graves in Iraq after the genocide committed by ISIL against the Yazidi people. More than 70 sites have been identified as suspected mass graves. To date, 17 mass graves in the Sinjar district have been confirmed and examined. Attempts are being made to identify the victims using DNA from survivors. In February 2021, 104 identified victims were buried in accordance with Yazidi tradition in the village of Kocho in Sinjar.

In some areas you could see the remains of women’s hair. I didn’t know which of the remains belonged to my mother.

What has been done cannot be undone.
I pray to God for justice.

+Internally displaced women and children

Like many other Yazidi women, Khairi Murad is still living in a refugee camp in 2021, five years after she escaped ISIL. Women and children make up more than half of the 200 000 Yazidi who are still internally displaced. The children have very limited access to education and health services. Both women and children have little or no access to treatment of trauma after being exposed to sexual slavery and other forms of violence during ISIL captivity.

In 2021, more than 200 000 Yazidi are still living
in refugee camps in Iraq.

See the full interview or explore a Yazidi refugee camp in 360°

Share your thoughts with Khairi Murad

All posts are anonymous and will be approved by our editors before published.

Click here to cancel reply.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Take the quiz

See the questions here

What is “genocide” according to the UN Genocide convention?

Genocide requires that massive human rights violations on religious or ethnic groups are committed with the intent to harm them as such

Genocide requires that physically damaging acts are committed with the intent to fully destroy an ethnic or religious group as such

Genocide requires that physically damaging acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such

Correct! Wrong!

Who are the Yazidis?

The Yazidi people live in northern Iraq in an area where they have long enjoy regional self-determination, using their own language in schools, until ISIS attached them in 2014 and drove them out of that land into the Kurdish region

The Yazidis have a long history in what is now the Kurdish region of Iraq, keeping their own religious traditions and holy sites, until ISIS started the genocide on them in 2014

The Yazidis do not have their own religion, but is a mixture of Christians, Muslims and persons believing in nature, though with a common language and history in the region

Correct! Wrong!

Why was the ISIS massacres recognized as genocide on the Yazidi?

Spokespersons for ISIS expressed the intent of destroying the Yazidi religion and the Yazidis as a religious group since they were seen as "infidels"

ISIS had the intent of killing, capturing or converting Yazidis because of their religious belief and also executed these plans in ways that affected a number of Yazidis

ISIS killed so many Yazidis who are a religious and ethnic group

Correct! Wrong!