Recovering from ISIS: One Yazidi Family’s Journey
Documentary Screening: New Film Follows Iraq’s Displaced Communities in the Wake of the Islamic State
Iraq’s Yazidi minority continues to suffer from the genocidal campaign waged by ISIS against their community in 2014. Today, thousands of Yazidis remain displaced, and many still bear extreme psychological trauma after enduring killings, abduction, torture, enslavement, and sexual violence on a massive scale. Although the U.S. and international community have taken measures to address stabilization and the humanitarian needs of Iraq’s minority communities, security issues and destroyed infrastructure remain key challenges in Sinjar District, the ancestral homeland of the Yazidis, and complicate efforts to rebuild communities and foster local reconciliation. “One Yazidi Family vs. ISIS” follows a Yazidi family with members scattered across Iraq, Syria, and Germany as they try to cope in the aftermath of displacement and abduction.
USIP, in partnership with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kurdistan Regional Government Representation in the U.S., hosted a screening of the documentary “One Yazidi Family vs. ISIS.” The screening was followed by a discussion of the film and the issues the Yazidi community continues to face, as well as the ways in which the international community can better assist Yazidis and other displaced communities so they can return to their homes with dignity. Join the conversation on Twitter with #YazidiUSIP.
Speakers
The Honorable Nancy Lindborg, welcoming remarks
President & CEO, U.S. Institute of Peace
Ambassador Emily Haber, introductory remarks
German Ambassador to the United States
Ambassador Fareed Yasseen
Ambassador of Iraq to the United States
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman
Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the United States
Gwynne Roberts
Director and Producer, “One Yazidi Family vs. ISIS”
Sarhang Hamasaeed, moderator
Director, Middle East Programs, U.S. Institute of Peace
