‘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: Al Monitor AMSTERDAM — When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in June, he called on Muslims around the world to be a part of it. The invitation extended to preachers, engineers, judges, doctors and people with military and administrative experience, basically every Muslim who wanted to play…
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…
Publicatie: De Groene Amsterdammer Ruim veertig Nederlandse vrouwen zijn het afgelopen jaar naar Syrië en Irak vertrokken om zich in dienst te stellen van kalifaat. Sommigen namen hun kinderen mee. Want wat moeten die in een land vol ongelovigen? De woonkamer ziet eruit alsof er…
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 ZAATARI, Jordan — It has been years since Da’ed and her family fled Syria, but when her granddaughter asks where her mother and father are, the 60-year-old woman cannot find the right words to explain. In fact, Najoua, 4, still doesn’t know that her…
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…
Publication: Al-Monitor MAFRAQ, Jordan — Her first husband was a 46-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who already had two wives. Once every few months, he traveled to Jordan for business, and during these visits he would talk to Fatima’s aunt about marrying another woman. Her aunt told him she had…
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…