For my article reporting out of Berlin, I want to write an article that updates German efforts to resettle Yazidi women and which parts of the program have worked or may not have worked. In August 2020, Time Magazine released an article titled “A Radical German Program Promised a Fresh Start to Yazidi Survivors of ISIS Captivity. But Some Women Are Still Longing for Help” – I imagine my article as a continuation of the analysis and reporting done in this article, but three years later. The world has changed significantly since the release of the original article, with growing anti-immigrant spreading across Europe, worsening refugee crises around the world (meaning there are more refugees in Germany), and the economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. While these circumstances may prove challenging for Yazidi women in Germany, there is also growing hope. German courts are holding the perpetrators of their people’s genocide accountable. For my own piece, I want to interview women on their thoughts on the ongoing prosecution of crimes against Yazidi women and understand what it means to them to get legal justice. From there, I want to zoom out and consider the successes and failures of the Yazidi resettlement program in Germany and how Yazidi women feel about their future in their new country. If possible, I’d also love to get in touch with people working on the cases to understand what legal challenges may lie ahead.
The following quote from that article particularly stood out to me as something to expand on:
“Before she left Iraq, Hanan said she was given a piece of paper with information about what awaited her in Germany. “I wish I could find that paper now,” she says, “because the promises they gave us, they didn’t keep all of them.”
I want to speak to women about their experiences with the German resettlement program, the resources it offers, and if the quality is dipping as anti-immigrant sentiment rises in Germany. The German program and the figureheads it produced, such as Nadia Murad, have been widely lauded and used as an example in other countries, but it is not without fault. Specifically, I’d be interested in what therapy and mental health services have looked like for Yazidi women, given how much cultural sensitivity training it may require. The Time Magazine article also mentioned gynecological issues that Yazidi women dealt with during their time in captivity were not being tended to. At the time, the article reported that poor psychosocial care was the greatest misgiving Yazidi women had with German resettlement. Finally, I want to investigate the future of Yazidi women in Germany. From my understanding of the conservative nature of Yazidi culture, I imagine that forging an economic future for themselves when many had to leave their male family members behind (or may have lost male family members) may be a challenge. I want to learn more about small businesses they may run, where they may be seeking employment, and the education rates for young Yazidi women growing up in Germany.
