McClelland Susan Elizabeth - A Cave in the Clouds: A Young Womans Escape from ISIS

Contents

Foreword

The Yazidi people are an ethnic and religious minority in the Middle East, with their largest population concentrated in Northern Iraq. Yazidis are Kurmanji-speaking and practice a monotheistic religion that reflects a spectrum of teachings and beliefs from various other religions including Gnostic Christianity, Judaism, Sufi Islam, and Zoroastrianism. Rather than formal ceremonies, their religious practice involves visiting sacred places. Yazidis participate in baptisms and feasts, sing hymns, and recite stories. Some of their stories are about historical and mythical battles fought in protection of the religion. Others, told over the centuries by generations of women, detail methods of resistance to the same threats that Yazidi women face today. The Yazidi people believe that they are descended solely from Adam, that angels guard the world, that reincarnation is possible, and that there is no distinction between heaven and hell. Because these beliefs vary significantly from other religions, the Yazidis have been targeted throughout history and persecuted by Muslim rulers in the region who demanded that they convert to Islam. Yazidis have been labelled devil worshipers, infidels, and non-believers. These labels have, for centuries, served as the foundation of efforts to destroy Yazidi communities and alienated the Yazidis from other groups. Over the course of their history, the Yazidis have suffered and survived seventy-four separate genocidal attacks.

More recently, the Yazidis were made vulnerable by forced displacement under Saddam Hussein; the economic meltdown of Iraq under UN sanctions; the breakdown of the state and security after the US-led invasion of 2003; and the political failures that followed. In Iraq, there are now around 500,000 Yazidis, primarily from the Sinjar region in Nineveh province in the countrys north. The Yazidis of Syria and Turkey have mostly fled to neighboring countries or to Europe.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also known as ISIS and by its Arabic language acronym, Daesh) waged a targeted attack against the Yazidi people in Iraq in August 2014. The systematic sexually-based violence organized by ISIS against Yazidi women and girls commenced immediately. Most of the women and girls were forced into holding cells where they witnessed and experienced sexual assault as ISIS members selected women as unwilling partners or else sold them into sexual slavery. They were treated like property as they were assessed on appearance and then bought, sold, traded, and gifted between extensive networks of ISIS fighters throughout Iraq and Syria. UN findings illustrate the high emotional and psychological needs of these women, even after theyve successfully escaped or been rescued from ISIS. Years later, women and girls are still considered the most vulnerable population of Yazidi refugees.

Many Yazidi women are still hoping for the day when they can give their testimony as part of an official process to hold ISIS accountable for their crimes against humanity. As one anonymous victim has said, It has been four years. We want to record everything that happened so it can be used as evidence. We are waiting. By telling her story and bringing the experiences of Yazidi women to light, Badeeah is actively participating in this long-sought-after process of sharing and healingrevealing what has been in her heart since the first moment her village was attacked.

Yazidi women are not archetypal victims or heroes. They are individual human beings who have experienced atrocious crimes but who also made active decisions for their survival and protection, ultimately defying their perpetrators. As Adlan speaks to Badeeah during her time in captivity, Always move to the light. Dont let the darkness in. Hold onto love, so that darkness will eventually be banished. Together, Yazidi women and girls have continued to preserve their religion, instill a sense of pride in their children and community, and speak out for oppressed people all over the world. Together, we will banish the darkness.

Nafiya Naso, founder of the Canadian Yazidi Association and founding member of Operation Ezra.

Operation Ezra was founded to increase general awareness about the plight of the Yazidi people in the Middle East and to raise funds for the sponsorship of Yazidi refugee families to Winnipeg, Canada. To date, they have helped resettle dozens of Yazidi refugees. This project was set in motion by the Jewish Community in Winnipeg and has grown to include people from all walks of life.

1. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. (July 2016). Evidence . 24th Report. 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. Available: www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/CIMM/meeting-24/evidence.

2. Marczak , Nikki. All the Survivors Have a Book inside Their Hearts. SBS World News Online , SBS, 3 Aug. 2018, www.sbs.com.au/topics/life/culture/article/2018/08/01/all-survivors-have-book-inside-their-hearts.

A Note from the Authors

Badeeah Hassan Ahmed and writer Susan Elizabeth McClelland first met in the summer of 2016. At that time, Susan was asked by the magazine Marie Claire UK to write a story on a female survivor of the Yazidi genocide. Susan worked with translator Sozan Fahmi to research potential subjects. Badeeahs story stood out from every other account that had been in the press. Among other things, Badeeahs story spoke to the sacrifices so many Yazidi women and girls had made to help others at the risk of their own deaths. And her abduction shed light on a startling fact: in Syria, it is estimated that the majority of Daesh fighters (otherwise known as ISIS) are in fact foreign born and/or citizens of Western countries.

When Badeeah first escaped Aleppo and it was discovered that it was an American, possibly a commander, who had taken her, she was flown to the United States. There, she gave talks at conferences about the genocide and worked with the US State Department to try to identify her captor. It was hard for Badeeah to relive her trauma at the hands of Daesh. But Badeeah realized that her story could bring international attention to the crisis experienced by the Yazidi people. She agreed to turn her story into a book in the hopes of reaching an even wider audience, so more people could know the truth of what is still happening in Syria.

Over the course of a year, Badeeah, Sozan, and Susan worked together to retell Badeeahs story. They consulted closely with members of the Yazidi community, including Dakhill Shammo, Nasir Kiret, and Imad and Fawaz Farhan, to accurately and sensitively reflect Yazidi culture and spirituality. It was very important to them not only to tell a story of captivity and of war and survival but also to highlight the resilience of a culture unknown to many around the world.

But Badeeahs is also a difficult story to tell. Because so much happened during the course of her captivity, it was impossible to chronicle every detail. In writing this book for young readers, some creative license has been taken to compensate for this, including reconstructing the order of events, combining some characters, and recreating dialogue where necessary.

Today Badeeah and Eivan and his mother live in Germany. Badeeah is determined to become a nurse and give back to her people. A Cave in the Clouds is Badeeahs story: it is not just about war and what it does to women and girls; it is about the restorative power of storytelling and the remarkable human ability to find meaning even in the darkest of times.