The third Iraqi women’s conference, organised by the Iraqi Women’s Association and the Yazidi Women’s Freedom Movement (TAJÊ), was held in Baghdad, Iraq, on 25 July, under the slogan, “Become the voice of self-defence in a common fight against femicide.”
The conference started with a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the 2014 genocide against the Yazidi people in Sinjar (Şengal).
Several speeches by representatives of the TAJÊ and Iraqi Women’s association followed, noting that the majority of victims of the 2014 genocide were women and children, and that the fate of 7,000 people captured by ISIS in 2014, among them 6,000 women and children, remains unknown.
TAJÊ spokeswoman Ferîde Şengalî pointed out that “all women share a common pain”, that attacks against women “wherever they may be, are always the result of patriarchal mentality” and that all women need to organise themselves to prevent these attacks.
The participants strongly condemned the Turkish military attacks on Sinjar, ongoing since the 2014 genocide, calling them “continuation of the genocide against the Yazidi people” and stating that “Since 2017, there have been hundreds of attacks by Turkish warplanes and drones against the Yazidi people of Sinjar.”
Adding that the Turkish state has and is continuing to support ISIS in its attacks on Sinjar and other regions in Iraq, the participants demanded called for Turkey to be put on trial for its “ongoing support of ISIS”.
In the closing statement, the conference made a call to the Iraqi government to officially recognise Sinjar’s 2014 genocide of the Yazidis, which has so far been recognised by 13 countries. Referring to the ongoing Turkish military attacks against Sinjar and other regions in Iraq, it demanded that the Iraqi government “establish a no-fly zone over Sinjar”. It also called on the Iraqi government to recognise the autonomous administration of the people of Sinjar.
Another call was made to the Yazidi people who fled Sinjar in 2014 due to the genocide and now live in camps in Iraq and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to “return to their homeland of Sinjar”.
The statement ended with a demand that “women’s rights in Iraq be renewed to ensure that women are protected from harassment and violence in every field of life”.
