A conference on Yazidi women, entitled “Freedom of women of Shengal is the freedom of humanity” was held at the UN on 19 June, at between 16:00-17:30. The conference was jointly organised by Women’s Peace Bureau (CENI), International Kurdish Women’s Movement (TJKE), Yazidi Kurdish Women’s Assembly, Berivan and Femmes Solidaire.

Yazidi Women’s Assembly representative, Leyla Boran, who was the moderator of the conference, told the history of femicide in her opening speech, sating that it as a crime against humanity, remarking that the Kurdish women describe femicide additionally as a form of genocide carried out based on sex. Boran called on all the women to take action in order to rescue the Yazidi women.

Barbara Spinelli, International Democrat Lawyers’ Association representative, said she is a member of a delegation composed of 13 lawyers and psychologists from Turkey and Italy which works for the women of Shengal, adding that the delegation has a long term action plan about the issue. Spinelli said the delegation visited the refugee camps in all four parts of Kurdistan, interviewed the women staying in them, and prepared reports, adding that the women in Italy describe what the women of Shengal have been undergoing as femicide. Spinelli called on the international community not to remain silent on the issue and to see the problem Yazidi women as the problem of all humanity.

Spinelli stressed that struggle against the femicide must be a strategically organised and long term one, and added that the formation of women communes as part of the struggle must be carried to an universal level. Spinelli further drew attention to the femicide perpetrated by the ISIS gangs, saying that women are systematically subjected to physical and psychological violence which -she said- is a war against women. Spinelli lastly called for humanitarian aid and the formation of women communes and psychological support to women suffering the systematic violence of the war.

Another speaker at the conference, Canan Polat, representative of CENI, informed the participants about the campaign on Yazidi women launched by CENI under the title “Freedom of women of Shengal is freedom of humanity”, and said several delegations were sent to Kurdistan in the scope of the campaign to prepare reports and to organise panels, conferences and meetings. Polat recalled the savage attacks of ISIS on the people in Shengal and Rojava, and recalled that the women here were abducted, raped and sold in slave markets in the 21st century by the ISIS gangs.

Polat recalled that over 7 thousand women and children have been kept hostage and subjected to torture each day by ISIS gangs. Polat said those who “buy” the women in slave markets are from Turkish and Arab origins while the price is determined according to the ages of the women and children. Polat stressed that those who object to the prices are also murdered, and that these slavery markets are to provide the finance of the war for ISIS.

Polat lastly called on primarily the UN authorities and the international community to take part in the campaign.

The conference on the other hand called on the UN to stop the logistic support of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to ISIS gangs and impose sanctions on these countries as well as to mobilise to rescue the Yazidi women held by ISIS.

A final report has been issued at the end of the conference which decided to carry out the campaign “Freedom of women of Shengal is freedom of humanity” in all the countries and to organise panels, seminars and conferences on Yazidi women.

The conference also decided to continue sending delegations to Shengal and Rojava and to gather support to rescue the women of Shengal from ISIS gangs as well as to form communes for the women tortured and subjected to violence in the war.