FYF statement for International Women’s Day 2018

Today, on March 8th, we celebrate International Women’s Day. For many women and girls around the world, this is a day of hope, inspiration, and solidarity.

For the Yezidi community, international women’s day is another opportunity to draw attention to 3000 missing women and children, still in the hands of ISIS or in unknown locations, forgotten by the international community but forever in the hearts of the Yezidi people.

For the thousands of women and girls who managed to escape, daily life is a struggle and haunting memories persist. Our psychologist, working with women and girls in an IDP camp, explains, “It has been three years since ISIS attacked the Yezidis, and they live in displacement, which has its own stress. This diminishes their ability to move on, as individuals and as a community. I do believe that justice would help the community move forward.” She continues, “I have heard of so many suicides, it is shocking. The trauma that members of the community have experienced remains a very serious matter.”

The burden of daily livelihood and combatting depression falls very hard on men, women, and children alike in the IDP camps. This is why FYF pays particular attention to the psychological well being of survivors, working to prevent women and girls from re-traumatization or exploitation.

The Free Yezidi Foundation supports all efforts in 2018 to draw attention to the rights, needs, and empowerment of women and girls across the world. Special attention should be given to women and girls experiencing or overcoming the most acute suffering, including Yezidi women and others who have experienced sexual violence.