Doctor Giving Life Back to Yazidi Victims of Islamic State

The Kidnapping That Shattered a Family in Sinjar

On 3 August 2014, Shireen was preparing for a high school examination in her home in Sinjar when Islamic State militants entered the house and took her from her family. At 19 she was sold as a sex slave first in Tal Afar and later to a fighter named Abu Omar in Mosul. She remained in that house for more than two years, forbidden from stepping outside even to the garden. Two other Yazidi girls, aged six and ten, were later brought to the same house and forced to perform domestic labour.

Daily Life Under Captivity and the Struggle for Release

Shireen has described how Abu Omar already had two Iraqi wives who lived separately and who beat her during visits. She was required to cook, clean and wash dishes each day under the watch of two guards. When Iraqi forces retook parts of Mosul in 2016, Shireen was freed after more than two years in captivity. Her father and one sister remain missing since 2014; an uncle and several friends were killed by Islamic State fighters.

Medical and Emotional Care at the Duhok Survivors Centre

After her release Shireen travelled to Duhok for a medical examination with Dr Nagham Nawzat, a Yazidi gynaecologist. The consultation went beyond a physical check-up. Dr Nawzat listened to Shireen’s account of repeated rape and forced labour, then offered reassurance that she had been brave. Shireen later said that without this support she would not be alive today. At the time of reporting, Dr Nawzat had provided care to an estimated 1,200 women liberated from Islamic State, according to Hussein al-Qaidi, director of the Kidnapped Affairs department at the Kurdistan Regional Government in Duhok.

Scale of Yazidi Abductions and the Work of One Clinician

Figures released by the Kurdistan Regional Government indicated that 2,023 Yazidi women had been liberated from Islamic State-held areas as of July 2018. Dr Nawzat, born in Mosul in 1976 and qualified in gynaecology from Mosul Medical College in 2002, joined the Duhok Survivors Centre in 2015. The centre, supported by the United Nations Population Fund, remains the only facility in Iraq specialising in gender-based violence. Her method begins with a full physical assessment followed by attentive listening, allowing survivors to speak about their experiences at their own pace.

Recognition, Cultural Context and Continuing Needs

In March 2016 Dr Nawzat received the International Women of Courage Award from then US Secretary of State John Kerry. Yazidi families in the region follow a faith centred on Yasdan and the Peacock Angel Melek Tawwus; many survivors reported being told by captors that this belief was devil worship and being pressured to convert. The United Nations has described the killings and abductions of at least 12,000 Yazidis in 2014 as an ongoing genocide. Survivors continue to report depression, nightmares and disrupted sleep long after release.

Looking Ahead for Survivors and Support Services

Dr Nawzat has stated that her early interest in women’s health issues led her to medicine so she could teach health care and offer direct support. Shireen, now 23, credits the doctor with restoring a sense of safety after captivity. At the time of reporting, the Duhok centre continued to receive women who had endured similar ordeals, underscoring the sustained demand for specialised services in the Kurdish region of Iraq.