The Doctor Who Healed a Thousand Wounds: Inside the Yazidi Genocide Survivor Crisis

(Middle East Eye)

Abduction and Years of Captivity in Mosul

Shireen was studying for a high school examination at her home in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar on 3 August 2014 when Islamic State group militants broke into her house and kidnapped her from her family. At the age of 19 she was sold as a sex slave to an IS militant in the north-western city of Tal Afar. Three months later Shireen was sold once again to Abu Omar another IS fighter in Mosul to become his third wife.

Shireen recounts that Abu Omar said he loved her yet she notes that when you love someone you do not rape her. The experience destroyed her life. Although Abu Omar's other wives lived in a separate house Shireen says that they used to beat her whenever they got together. Yazidis believe in Yasdan a god who emanates seven angels. The angel they revere above all others is Melek Tawwus or the Peacock Angel but Shireen was told by IS that Melek Tawwus was the devil and so was forced to convert to Islam.

For more than two years Shireen says she was not allowed to leave the house in Mosul. She was forced to cook wash the dishes and clean every day. According to Shireen Abu Omar later brought two other Yazidi girls to the house. One was six years old and was forced to clean the house while the other was 10. She was raped frequently by Abu Omar.

Release and Immediate Aftermath of Trauma

In 2016 Shireen was released by Iraqi forces during the campaign to retake Mosul from IS. After more than two years of captivity Shireen suffered from depression and constant nightmares. Her uncle and many of her friends were killed by IS while her father and one of her sisters have been missing since 2014. Shireen describes the situation as too horrible noting that the skeletons of her uncle and her friends are under the ground.

Upon her release she visited Dr Nagham Nawzat a Yazidi gynaecologist in the city of Duhok in Iraq's Kurdish region. Nawzat not only gave her a physical examination but she also listened to Shireen and offered her emotional support. Shireen states that Dr Nawzat helped all of us and that without her help she would not be here today. The 23-year-old survivor credits this care with her continued presence.

Dr Nagham Nawzat's Path from Mosul to Specialised Care

Nawzat is highly respected among the Yazidi community. Born in Mosul to a Yazidi family in 1976 her life-long dream was to study medicine. She graduated with a degree in gynaecology from Mosul's Medical College in 2002. In 2014 IS seized almost a third of Iraq. At least 12,000 Yazidis were killed or kidnapped as part of what the United Nations describes as an ongoing genocide against the religious minority.

The following year Nawzat decided to join the Duhok Survivors' Centre where she volunteers to provide healthcare and psychological support for Iraqi women who survived IS. Funded by the United Nations Population Fund it is the only facility in Iraq that specialises in gender-based violence. Hussein al-Qaidi the director of the Kidnapped Affairs department at the Kurdistan Regional Government in Duhok reports that 2,023 Yazidi women have been liberated from IS territories as of July 2018. Nawzat aged 42 has provided life-saving support to more than half of them helping an estimated 1,200 Yazidi women.

Post-Traumatic Approach at the Duhok Survivors' Centre

Nawzat uses a post-traumatic medical approach. She conducts a thorough physical check-up and then listens attentively as her patients talk about their fears and their traumatising experiences. She offers them support and positive reinforcement like a big sister the survivors can confide in. She is happy to meet her patients again whenever they request psychological support.

In March 2016 Nawzat received the International Women of Courage Award from US Secretary of State John Kerry for providing psychological support to traumatised Yazidi survivors and for combating gender-based violence. This recognition highlights her consistent presence for women navigating the aftermath of captivity and loss.

Broader Reach and Lasting Needs Among Liberated Women

The work at the centre connects directly to daily realities in Duhok where survivors rebuild lives amid missing family members and ongoing psychological effects. Shireen's account of forced conversion household labour and repeated sales illustrates patterns reported by many women who reached the facility. Nawzat's method of combining medical examination with attentive listening has supported an estimated 1,200 individuals out of the 2,023 documented liberations by July 2018.

Local officials such as Hussein al-Qaidi track these numbers through the Kurdistan Regional Government's Kidnapped Affairs department underscoring the scale of the crisis in northern Iraq. Survivors continue to seek follow-up care reflecting the sustained demand for the centre's specialised services funded by the United Nations Population Fund.