Publication: Middle East Eye DUHOK, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Umm and Abu Ahmed could not have children of their own. So when the middle-aged Sunni couple from Mosul heard the Islamic State (IS) group was selling Yazidi orphans, they decided to take one in. For $500, they…
Publication: Al-Monitor DAHUK, Iraqi Kurdistan — When Nadine refused to marry the 25-year-old Islamic State fighter from Yemen, he took her daughter Ronia instead. Right in front of Nadine’s eyes, he tore the clothes from her daughter’s body. Then he raped the 10-year-old girl. “Mommy, help me, my little…
Publication: The New Arab MOSUL, Iraq- Mohammed was only 11 years old when he saw how two men were beheaded by Islamic State militants. It was at one of the many IS checkpoints in the city of Mosul, where Mohammed and his friends were hanging out. “The sword…
Published: Al-Monitor AMSTERDAM — Pari Ibrahim, 27, was a regular law student in the Netherlands who had a job in a library until she received a phone call at 5 a.m. in August 2014 that would change her life forever. A family member from northern…
Publicatie: Trouw en De Tijd. Best gelezen online Trouw-artikel van 2016. Je kunt het Midden-Oosten niet naar Europa halen zonder de vrouwenhaat en het seksueel geweld erbij te importeren. Kun je dat nog zeggen, vraagt Brenda Stoter zich af, zonder je aan racistische clichés schuldig…
‘Niemand hier heeft haar man nog. We zijn helemaal alleen’ DUHOK– Duizenden Yezidi-vrouwen werden het afgelopen jaar door Islamitische Staat (IS) tot slaaf gemaakt en verkracht. Een deel wist te ontsnappen. Zij keerden terug naar Noord-Irak: ziek, gebroken en ernstig getraumatiseerd. Artikel geplaatst in MO*.…
Publication: MO* (also translated in Dutch and French). Over the past year thousands of Jezidi women were made a slave and raped by Islamic State (IS) fighters. Some of them got away. They returned to Northern Iraq: ill, broken and severely traumatised. The temperature is over 30 degrees,…
Publicatie: De Tijd Iedere dag reizen duizenden vluchtelingen met de trein door de Balkan, op weg naar een beter leven in West-Europa. Ze zijn uitgeput, want voor slapen of douchen is geen tijd. Overal staan sporttassen en zakken vol spullen. De muren van de wagon…
Publication: Al-Monitor, July 14, 2015 For most Muslims around the world, the month of Ramadan marks a period of fasting, abstinence and contemplation. Besides a month for spirituality and reflection, Ramadan is also a month in which extra attention is paid to tolerance, generosity, charity and…
Publication: Al-Monitor DAHUK, Iraq — The first man Aniya was forced to marry was an Islamic State militant called Abu Safouan. She was 41 and he was 22, but still he bought her and her 3-year-old daughter at a slave market in Raqqa. After he had…
Publication: Al-Monitor ERBIL, Iraq — When Hemin Zangana was sent to the front line in August 2014, he and his fellow peshmerga fighters were determined to recapture the Mosul Dam from the Islamic State. They told each other they would rather die during this important mission than…
Publication: Al-Monitor ERBIL, Iraq — Mohammed was 5 years old when August 16, 2015his little brother was shot dead before his eyes. This happened in June 2014 when Islamic State (IS) militants stormed the city of Mosul and took over large parts of northern Iraq. “IS…
Publication: Al-Monitor AMSTERDAM — For Aysha and Luca Opdam’s father, it is still hard to accept that his children, born and raised in the Netherlands, are now living in Syria. In a letter, he describes how his ex-wife radicalized after she devoted her life to Islam around six years…
Publication; Al-Monitor AMMAN, Jordan — His teenage daughter being married to an Islamic State (IS) fighter, his wife being forced to convert to Islam and his sons being trained by militants in the Islamic State’s children’s training camps. “We got a call that ‘Daesh’ (the…
Publicatie: De Tijd AMMAN- Door de opmars van Islamitische Staat vluchten christenen massaal uit Irak. In de Jordaanse hoofdstad Amman worden ze in kerken opgevangen, maar ook daar willen ze weg. ‘Er is geen plek meer voor ons in het Midden-Oosten.’ Zijn tienerdochter die moet trouwen…