"This is the life I lived." GB's Story

“No one goes anywhere alone, least of all into exile — not even those who arrive physically alone, unaccompanied by family, spouse, children, parents, or siblings. No one leaves his or her world without having been transfixed by its roots, or with a vacuum for a soul. We carry with us the memory of many fabrics, a self soaked in our history, our culture; a memory, sometimes scattered, sometimes sharp and clear, of the streets of our childhood, of our adolescence; the reminiscence of something distant that suddenly stands out before us, in us, a shy gesture, an open hand, a smile lost in a time of misunderstanding, a sentence, a simple sentence possibly now forgotten by the one who had said it.” (Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Hope)

Her Routes and Roots is a series on journeys of displacement undergone and told by young women, focusing on their resilience and pivotal moments of strength. Stories are drawn from in-depth narrative interviews conducted during Her{connect}Her, a global voice program by Footage Foundation.

(GB is from Iraq and currently in Greece. Her story has been edited for length and clarity. Content warning: physical and sexual violence).

GB: In the village of Kojo in Iraq, there were no work or jobs because of the Yazidi religion. We were not allowed to go to school or find a job… The only job for the Yazidi was farm work. If we had money, then we would have a good life. We were good all together as family in Iraq.

One day, during Holy Days, we went to visit my husband’s family in another village. On that day, ISIS came and closed the village. In the morning, with my husband’s family, we ran away to the mountains to flee. We arrived at night, but ISIS followed us to the mountains. They fired shots in the air to freeze us.

We were all gathered by ISIS to be taken back to my husband’s family’s house. They told us that the Emir and his men would come to take us back. We waited all night, but the next day, no one came. So, that night, I ran away with my husband and a few other people from his family to another area of the mountain, and we stayed there for three days.

When ISIS came the next day, they took two of my husband’s sisters with all their families — his uncles, aunts, nephews, everybody.

ISIS found us again. When they got us, they killed my husband’s father. So, we ran away again to another place, and we were caught again, and they shot at us. We ran away again. Every time we escaped from ISIS, we always found a well where we could drink water.

One time, we arrived in the morning, and ISIS found us in the afternoon. At this point, my husband and I ran away again, but we got separated and lost in the mountains. I did not know where my husband was for a whole day.

I found a lorry and asked the driver where he was going. He said he was taking some people to Kurdistan.

I got in the lorry, but he said, “You are a stranger, different, you cannot go with us.”

I said, “You will have to kill me, I am not going anywhere.”

They let me go with them. By 12 o’clock, we arrived at a camp in Syria. They gave me something to eat, and and a doctor checked me, but I had to sleep on the ground.

The next morning, I found a car with some people, and I wanted to go with them, but they did not want me. The driver asked me why I was crying.

I said, “I need to leave with you, but they will not let me.”

So, the driver told me, “Come, we will take you with us.”

I still had not found my husband, so I went to Kurdistan. When we arrived, I found a place with Yazidi people. After four or five days, they gave me a very small tent. After three or four days, my husband arrived at the same place. He told me he walked six hours to Syria, then took a car to Kurdistan. Since then, ISIS closed our village for 13 days.

Europe does not know about us (Yazidi) or recognize us. We do not have power or any political precedent.

We have experienced the situation of being moved around, kicked out of our houses, and forced to leave.

Twenty days before ISIS came, the Kurdistan army said they would protect the village. They told us not to leave; they would protect us. But, when ISIS came, all the Kurdish escaped and left us, the Yazidi people, to deal with them. The Kurdish army left the village with all the weapons, leaving us to defend ourselves. The Iraqi and Kurdistan governments did nothing to help protect us from the siege.

When ISIS arrived, they separated the men and women. They took and killed 450 men, almost all the men.

They took the women and kids and put us all near the mountain where we had escaped previously. Some women tried to escape, but nobody helped them.

They took 86 old women and killed them. One was my aunt and another, my brother’s wife. Some girls were taken to Mosul and some to Syria. The smallest kids and girls were taken to Iraq, to the other side of the mountain.

They raped some of the girls, and others were forced to be married. The boys were taken to an army camp to be “warriors.” Some women were sold, and men could buy one and sell another. It is the same now… Some girls committed suicide. On the first day of Ramadan, they burned 20 girls, and ISIS posted the video online.

This is the life I lived, and this is what I saw.

* * *

After Kurdistan, we [were] smuggled into Turkey… We tried for 15 days to go to Greece, but the police caught us and put us in jail. Our last try to Greece, it was at night, and we used a small boat that leaked water. We arrived on the beach in Greece, and they took us by bus to a camp. For 40 days, we were not allowed to go out or buy anything.

After those 40 days, we were put on a boat to the Island of Leros, and we stayed there for one year. For five months, we did not have any money. In Leros, they made cards for money and gave 90 Euros for every person.

But I did not get a card, only my husband [did], because I was married and considered a member of a family. So, I got 50 Euros on my husband’s card… I went to the UN office there to ask for money for a ticket to Skaramagas. They told me they could not give me any money; they already gave money to everyone there. There was nothing left to give.

The same situation [happened] when [I] arrived in Skaramagas.

After one and a half years in Greece, no organization has helped us with anything. They could not help us with anything, because we came after the [European Union-Turkey] agreement.

Nothing has changed. People say human rights are in Europe, but I came here, and did not find any human rights.

I did not come here to take things; I came here to tell my story and to say to the world what I have been through. I hope this interview is put into the world, because people feel forgotten.

Watch the digital story GB created while participating in Her{connect}Her, released soon at herconnecther.org/stories.

To support some of the thousands of women and girls in situations like GB around the world, and Footage's work; raising voices to elevate lives, please visit: www.footageproject.org/invest.