How a camera enabled Mediha to speak the unspeakable

Daniel Nelson

The genocide of the Yazidis? Who remembers it now, a decade after the shocking reports of Islamic State (IS) atrocities?

Mediha does.

She was 10 when her family was captured by the terrorist group in Sinjar, northern Iraq, forced into sexual slavery and later sold on to a succession of other men.

Thousands of other girls and women were subjected to the same unspeakable brutality. But since her rescue from a prison camp after the IS’ defeat, Mediha has rejected silence and spoken the unspeakable.

Film-maker Hasan Oswald gave her a camera, which, says Mediha, “immediately became my best friend. My biggest hope now is that audiences will continue watching the film  and learning about my community, the Yazidi people, who are still suffering and in need of  support more than ever. 

“I hope that this film inspires more people to get involved in the Yazidi  cause and help us fight for justice.” 

Let’s hope, because 19-year-old Mediha needs support in looking after her surviving brothers and psychological help in dealing with the traumas inflicted on her, and the Yazidis need help in rebuilding their community, and in rescuing the women and girls still trapped in camps or trafficked to Turkey and elsewhere by resettling IS fighters.

Her extraordinary honesty, maturity, clarity and determination illuminate the film, which also shows that her efforts to come to terms with her disastrous past (“When I take a shower I’m afraid to look at myself”) run hand in hand with her need to tackle the sexist prejudices of her own society (advising her “to pretend it didn’t happen”).

The film shows Yazidi rescuers continuing to track down and extract children and women who have been “married off” and who for a variety of reasons are unable or afraid to return to their homeland. Often the rescuers have to hold their noses and pay for releases.

Mediha once complained that no-one would listen to her and that “it is my desire to speak freely.” The camera has helped her heal; the film may remind many that the impact of the burst of IS madness will scar generations and that we should not shy away from examining its causes.

• Information on the campaign to raise awareness about the Yazidi crisis and support Mediha’s quest for justice:  https://www.medihafilm.com/impact