Vian Dakhil: Iraq's only female Yazidi MP on the battle to save her people | The Guardian
Despite Death Threats by ISIlL Iraqi MP Ministers to the Afflicted
"The young Yazidi woman in a blue headscarf says her name is Hana. She is 18. She is standing in the muddy courtyard of her new temporary home an abandoned, unfinished building outside the Iraqi-Kurdish town of Zakho. Beside her is Vian Dakhil, a politician from the same religious minority. Hana is speaking rapidly and clutching Dakhils hand as though shes terrified this local heroine has something far more important to do than listen to her story.
Hana was abducted by Islamic State (Isis) last August. Heavily armed, black-clad militants stormed her village and shot dead her father, four brothers, two uncles and six cousins. They then separated her from her older female relatives. They drove me away in a truck with other unmarried girls. Two fighters took me and held me prisoner in their house. They beat me and gave me scraps to eat. After 36 days, Hana escaped when one of her captors left a window unlocked. It was like a suicide mission, but I didnt care. I ran for three days and nights to get away.
Dakhil, a slim woman with long auburn hair, is not going anywhere. She listens intently as her two armed bodyguards stand at a discreet distance. How is your health? What else did the men do to you? she asks.
Blood rushes to Hanas cheeks. Her eyes, locked on to Dakhils, well up with tears. They look at each other in silence. Its OK, I will help you, I will help you, says the politician eventually, freeing her hand from Hanas grip to pull the girl into a hug.
Vian Dakhil is one of only two Yazidis in Iraqs parliament. It seems obvious that its a lonely job; shes also the only woman from the besieged minority in an assembly that is three-quarters male. (The other Yazidi politician, a man, is so inactive that few people seem to know he exists.) But I dont realise how lonely her job is until Ive spent a 14-hour day with her in northern Iraq, visiting Yazidi survivors of Isis carnage. Its a relentless marathon of inhaling dust, kissing babies and comforting catastrophically traumatised, grief-wracked refugees like Hana."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/vian-dakhil-iraq-isis-yazidi-women