16 Days of Activism campaign: Iraq

During the international 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, we are helping spread the message of survivors of sexual violence in conflict zones worldwide. They are members of a growing global movement to fight the use of rape as a weapon of war. Today Fareeda Khalaf from Iraq.

“Survivors share the same pain. We should be strong and stand together against whatever and whoever made us suffer, and tell about their crimes and send our message together to the whole world.

Today I see myself stronger than ISIS.

Although I have suffered from being raped, beaten and sold, I will continue spreading my message and work for my community until the day that I see ISIS in court.

This is not just my story, this is the story of thousands of Yezidi women who are still in ISIS captivity. It is time that survivors break the silence but mostly it is the time for the world to hear their voices.”

In Fareeda Khalaf’s home country Iraq, sexual violence is being used by the Islamist group ISIS as a tool to terrorize the population and to commit genocide against the Yezidi minority. Khalaf, a member of the Yezidi community, was held in a slave camp and in the homes of ISIS members. After her escape, she published “The Girl Who Escaped ISIS.”

Read more about the conflict and sexual violence in Iraq in our country profile.

The 16 Days of Activism campaign 2017:

25 November: Statement by Dr Denis Mukwege