“They soon lost interest in Sofya. She was just one more prisoner -with
no more idea of her destination than anyone else. No one asked her name and
patronymic; no one remembered her surname. She realized with surprise that
although the process of evolution had taken millions of years, these people had
needed only a few days to revert to the state of cattle, dirty and unhappy,
captive and nameless.” ― Vasily Grossman, Life and
Fate
While the US and her “partner nation forces” are busy
launching air strikes against the
Islamic State[ISIL] in Iraq and Syria, some Yazidi women are bemoaning their fates at the hands of the ISIL. Their cries are
loud and the whole of the Kurdish region in Iraq resounds with their grief, yet these
vociferous wails seems not to have broken the impregnable wall of either the
Pentagon or the innumerable human minds spread across the world, both of which
are reputed for their steadfastness in
spontaneous judgement and action.
Hundreds of Yazidi families
bivouacking across the slopes of
Mount Sinjar are familiar with the agony of leaving their homes, their material
possessions, their home-towns and even more with the irreparable and
irrevocable loss of the lives of their dear ones. But it appears that there is
no end to their sorrow . God has decided to test their faith by using all
malevolent forces to bring them down to their knees and yet they cry out the
name of the immaculate Allah in utter devotion and wondrous patience. They have
been chased away from their homes like a pack of stray dogs and now they are being forced to trek across
difficult terrain, to live in makeshift camps and even under bridges, to scavenge and feed upon whatever they
get and wait for their deliverance from
such pathetic predicament which violates all laws of human living conditions to
a much better , hospitable and habitable area where they can be free from the
constant dangers which threaten their lives, whether they be human or natural.
Apart from their daily woes which have become the mainstay of their lot, their
primary concern lies with the well-being and safety of their women.
During their hastened flight with their families, some female
members were either abducted or captured by the ISIL militants who are treating
them as “spoils of war” and compelling them to forced prostitution and slavery. Mr. Khidher Domle, a minority expert has
talked about the horrific encounters of some Yazidi women with the militants to
Yolande Knell of BBC News. He has collected some information on their plight
and the reports presented by him are gripping and shocking tales of violence
against women, the bravery shown by a few lucky ones and the unchanged
conditions of the others. The world, at large, is still aloof to the miseries
of these hapless people who are still hoping for their emancipation. The men
and their women in this militant- infested region live in fear of being killed
or even worse...
The solidarity and the strength they show are impressive but
that is not going to help their women who are being trafficked, raped, abused
and forced to convert by these inhuman militants. The happenings in Iraq are
very shameful and atrocious and unless the people invested with power and
authority or even the wider media and populations across the globe do something
to aid them, their annihilation by these nihilistic militants will be complete
and we will be left with only fragments of this nightmarish story and with more
tumult and cacophonous disturbances around
the world. It is high-time that we shift
our focus from the beheading of a few Westerners and start thinking about and
working for the emancipation of the
people who inhabit these war-ridden zones.
After all they are men and we are also men and our inhumanity
and aloofness should not be the reason for the mourning of countless thousands
in this de-humanized age.
Irandati Pal
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