VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN in TIMES of CONFLICT a Textual Analysis of Media Representations of Yazidi Women During ISIS Conflict in Iraq and Syria

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VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN TIMES OF CONFLICT A textual analysis of media representations of Yazidi women during ISIS conflict in Iraq and Syria

Garni Mansour

Spring Semester 2020

Master program: Law, Gander & Society

Master Thesis in Gender Studies

Supervisor: Maria Carbin

Table of Contents Abstract 2 1.Introduction 3 Previous research 5 2.Theoretical background 8 The notion of “otherness” 8 Who listen’s? 9 The rescue fantasy 9 Theorising media 10 Theorising “thingness” 11 3.Method 12 Western media 13 Arab media 15 Critical discourse analysis (CDA) 16 4.Background about Yazidis and Background about ISIS 17 Background about Yazidis 17 Background about ISIS 18 5.Analysis 19 Critical discourse in Western media 19 First, The questions about sexual violence experience 19 Second, questions about the way sexual violence held 23 Third, questions about the help Yazidi women got 26 Critical discourse in Arab media 29 6.Conclusion 33 Sources 37 Appendix: Media material 39

Abstract

Sexual violence against women in the time of conflict is a problem that appeared in many cases during wartime. Despite that it is a common problem, media and especially Western media through its coverage of war and rape during war did not give this concept its focus but rather researcher argued that media focus’s in its coverage on its ideology and agendas. In this study, which focus on media coverage during ISIS war in Iraq and Syria, critical discourse analysis was carried out on Western media and Arab media in order to understand media representation for Yazidi women who been subject to sexual violence and the potential outcomes for their representation. The results of the analysis showed that Western media represented Yazidi women as victims, on the other hand Arab media represented them as survivors, Western media portray put Yazidi women in the box of being the “other”, while both Western and Arab media had specific ideologies in their coverage, Western media with a political agenda and Arab media in justifying Islam from ISIS actions. In both cases media did not took sexual violence against Yazidi women in the wartime rape discourse.

Keywords: Media, Critical Discourse Analyse, Sexual violence, Yazidi

1-Introduction: It was early in the morning that day of August the third 2014, when Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fighters (ISIS) swept across mount Sinjar (HRC, 2016). Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, far less than 15 kilometres from the Syrian border, where the Yazidi minority live (Ibid).

In 2016 Human rights council recognized ISIS crimes against Yazidi community as genocide (Ibid). The decision was based on reports of crimes conducted by ISIS toward the Yazidi community. The reports began to emerge after days of the attack, of “men being killed or forced to convert; of women and girls, some as young as nine, sold at market and held in sexual slavery by ISIS fighters; and of boys ripped from their families and forced into ISIS training camps.” (Ibid, P3).

Based on the announcement by the human rights council in 2016, ISIS committed the war crimes of rape, sexual violence, and sexual slavery toward more than 3,200 Yazidi women and girls (Ibid).

In his article explaining rape during civil war, Cohen presents four scholarly theories about sexual violence during conflict: the first theory claims that sexual violence occurs in all or most conflicts; the second theory argues that it only appears in specific conflicts; the third theory puts forth that it appears in genocidal war; the fourth theory asserts that sexual violence is linked with gender inequality (Cohen, 2013).

Baaz and Stern argue that in times of conflict, women from a specific ethnicity or religion face sexual violence (Baaz & Stern, 2013). This argument can be clearly demonstrated in the following cases⎯ former Yugoslavia and Rwanda when both countries were at war. According to Human rights watch (1996) in the Rwanda genocide, Tutsi women faced sexual violence because of their ethnical background as Tutsi (Human rights watch, 1996). Similarly, in former Yugoslavia, Muslim women also faced sexual violence due to their religious background (Allen, 1996). Similarly, Yazidi women who are an ethnical minority (De Vido, 2018) suffered rape during wartime (HRC, 2016).

While researcher argues about sexual violence during wartime, the media as an entity directly impacts how the public perceives and interprets events, including sexual violence on women. Media coverage of war time receives high audience watching time (Kull, 2004). Stories of sexual violence also air during the war-related coverage. Which make us curios to know media

3 opinion about wartime rape, and if the media conduct the reporting in taking into account the discourse of wartime rape. Van Dijk argues that, “The media, are not a neutral, common- sense[d], or rational mediator of social events, but essentially help reproduce preformulated ideologies” (van Dijk, 1988, p 11). According to this I believe analysis of media coverage of sexual violence during a conflict can deepen our understanding of how the media deal with wartime rape, and understand the existing of structures of ideologies, and help us shed light on the impact that the media have on the public in its portrayal of women who face sexual violence in wartime in.

In this thesis I will consider the media coverage of the ISIS conflict in Iraq and Syria, specifically the media coverage about Yazidi women who faced sexual violence during this conflict.

The aim of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the way media portrayed Yazid women who faced sexual violence, and to explore the potential outcomes of this portrayal, by analysing televised and written interviews with Yazidi women who were captured by ISIS, carrying out this with critical discourse analysis of Western media and Arab media. The questions will be explored in this study are: How are Yazidi women represented by the media? Is there a difference between Western media representation and Arabic media representation? What conclusions can be drawn from these representations? Critical discourse analysis of different media material will be key in understanding the social practice of the media discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) aims ultimately to make a change of the existing social reality in which discourse is related in particular ways to other social elements such as power relations, ideologies, and political strategies and policies (Fairclough, 2014). CDA has an overtly political agenda (Kress, 1990) which is very relevant to examine war coverage.

I hope through this study to gain understanding of the specific images and patterns of representations in media coverage. I wish to explore the differing representations of Yazidi women and processes by identifying the representational processes used by Western and Arabic media in their reporting of sexual violence in ISIS conflict in Iraq and Syria. My goal is to unveil ideologies underlying the different practices in the representation and examine their reflections on the image of Yazidi women in the international press.

Images and patterns of representation in media coverage will be analysed using the framework of feminist theories in order to enhance our understanding of media representations through a feminist context. The feminist theories will be presented in the theoretical framework section.

The analysis of the Western media coverage will be contrasted against Arabic media, both having different cultural backgrounds from each other, to explore how their differences affect their news coverages.

Previous research:

In their book Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War 2013, Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern, provide an overview of how war and war-related rapes have been represented in western media.

According to coverages from the Guardian and the New York Times from 2003 to 2011, regarding sexual violence in the Congo war, researchers found that stories mostly include photos of female victims in a way to attract readers. Articles tend to contain sensitive and explicit material, showing images of physical injuries and suffering (Baaz & Stern, 2013).

The western media’s portrayal of these women’s stories are intended to be consumed by a western audience⎯ treating the women as though they are available to tell their stories over and over again (Ibid). On the other hand, when western women are the one exposed to sexual violence, they are protected from the media and their privacy is guarded, but in the case of the Congo war, the Congolese women are treated as an object of entertainment (Ibid).

Researchers also found that western media portrayed wars outside of the West as barbaric, in contrast to western wars, which are portrayed as more civilized, more acceptable “unlike the seemingly nonsensical sexual violence in the Congo” (Ibid, p91).

Baaz and Stern used Spivak argument from her article (Can The Subaltern Speak 1988) that the subaltern is denied her voice and when she does speak, she is not listened ”the raped

Congolese women’s voices have appeared in numerous newspaper articles, documentaries, reports (and even art pieces), and some rape survivors have also been invited to Europe to retell their stories to large audiences. Yet the listening that occurs is habitually highly selective; often only one part of the Raped Woman’s multifaceted story is registered by the visitor/reader” (Ibid, p94). They argued that there was an attention to the general rape story, rather than the consequences of rape on the women. Partial listening of these stories will not provide the right help for the victims of sexual violence (Ibid).

A good side effect of the wide spread of stories about sexual violence is that the overall shame about being a sexual violence victim has “decreased” (Ibid, p100).

In her study Sexual violence in the Western Media’s coverage of the war in Libya, Julia Garraio focused on two hegemonic media channels (as she describes them), the CNN and BBC and the way these channels “represented the cases of sexual violence that were being denounced during the war in Libya” (Garraio, 2012, p112). The researcher focuses on the metaphors used by CNN and BBC in the process of reporting, and how they conveyed information about sexual violence to the public. Her study aims to see if reporting on rape in times of conflict would bring greater public awareness on issues of women's rights, and if specific selections of stories might align with traditional discourses on sexual assaults during wartime.

The study shows that there were less interest in the accusations of sexual violence that that did not involve Gaddafi’s henchmen (Gaddafi was a Libyan president. Libyan people resisted his leadership and started the Libyan Revolution). There is nonetheless a slightly ascendant pattern: adult, female, and part of the Libyan population that is suspected of not aligning with the regime. This category tends to be excessively covered in hegemonic media outlets: CNN is an emblematic example, tending to emphasizing one type of sexual assault victims while ignoring others.

CNN portrayed the women as victims. A Libyan woman named AL Obeidi was presented by CNN as a heroine, putting her in the centre of the conflict. While Obeidi’s act in coming to the media “gave a face to the victims of sexual violence and made it possible for the media to mediate rape as a crime deeply affecting a concrete person, whom the public could relate to” (Ibid, p122), as Garraio explain this by addressing an argument by Boltanski that” a central problem in the politics of pity is the problem of the excess of victims. There are too many of

6 them, not just in the order of action, which requires the construction of a hierarchy and a setting of priorities, but also in the order of representation” (Ibid, p122), where Obeidi’s story provided temporary solution. CNN did not only presented AL Obeidi as a heroine but as one in need of rescue. They covered her story of sexual assault not as a civil case, but as a political event. Garraio argues that arousing public pity for the victims “are utilized mainly as political arguments to justify and legitimate government actions, whether domestic decisions or foreign interventions” (Ibid, 125), and she describes this as the politics of the pity.

“The CNN coverage can be regarded as a variation of the old formula “our enemies rape women, we protect women,” referring here not only to “our women” but to “their women” as well, an adaptation embedded in the long tradition of Orientalist discourses about “saving the women from the Third World” (Ibid, 128). According to Garraio, discourse on the use of rape as a weapon of war was non-existent on CNN.

Garraio shows that BBC’s coverage discusses how far the cases reported indicate that rape in Libya is being used as a weapon of war that could be included in the indictments against senior representatives of the regime. Garraio asserts that it is a discussion not a simple statement to be declared, with a focus on the question of rape as a weapon of war to control women and their communities.

CNN and BBC both ethnicize sexual violence in the context of the suffering of the victims. “Western media coverage tended to stress the damage inflicted on women because of their cultural background, thus presenting those women as simultaneous victims of a political system (Gaddafi's dictatorship) and of their own culture (a conservative Muslim society)” (Ibid, p135).

Garraio concludes that CNN portraits women in Libya’s war as lacking agency, and BBC stresses the conservative nature of Libyan’s society.

2-Theoretical background: The theoretical points of departure for this thesis draw from focus on post-colonial feminist studies, and feminist theories about media representation and sexuality.

The notion of “otherness”

Chandra Mohanty introduces the notion of otherness: a group of people judges others who do not share the same characteristics as them, in one or more elements (Mohanty, 1988). Even though her argument criticises western feminists who judge or categorize eastern feminists and women from third world countries as the “other” because they do not share the same ideas or physical attributes western women have (Ibid). The notion of otherness can be applied to many other situations.

Mohanty asserts that the “other” also applies to colonialism (Ibid). In putting third world women in the position of the “other,” western feminists put them in the position of needing repair, as western women are liberated, have jobs, have agency, and freedom. Because women from third-world countries may not have these things, they need to be advised, and therefore, colonised (Ibid).

In the same context Mohanty’s argument can be described as western world or western countries, putting third world countries in the name of the “other”, which need to repair and reform. By comparing third world countries with western world countries, considered the educated and free society, they imply that third world countries or the “other” need to be educated by western societies (Ibid).

Western countries colonisation thinking divides the world into societies who have, and societies that do not have, and in need of having (Mohanty, 2003), Mohanty criticised the division of “one third/two thirds, majority/minority, have/not have, power agency/none” (Ibid, p505).

Part of this criticism of Mohanty, depends on the outcome of this division between the societies, where the most affected by this division are the vulnerable, especially women and girls from the third world (Ibid).

Who Listen’s?

Spivak argues that there are those the world listens to and those who are subordinates within the discourse (Spivak, 1990). She argues that structural hierarchy is formed when those in a privileged position assume the role having access to knowledge in the discourse and the other side is reduced and perceived as having irrational and subjective beliefs, holding them in relative comparison to the dominant values of society, therefore, some people are perceived and/or constructed as the “other” (Ibid).

To focus on “who listens” is important because who listens informs us on who can speak, and who should represent the other in the discourse. The listeners decide what they want to hear (Ibid).

The listeners are the dominant people and the majority, they have certain values and ideas, and the speakers could be a representor of a minority group, which can summarise the minority values as the majority knows it, so Spivak argues that in this way, the media might misrepresent a certain group and risk undermining their values (Ibid).

The “rescue” fantasy

The rescue fantasy was developed by Abo-Lughod, who argued that the notion of saving can be used for political reasons. The idea of saving can be understood by a group of people to save the “other” group of people, and give them what is incomplete or imperfect, in their opinion (Abo-Lughod, 2003). The rescuer can do so for political gains (Ibid).

Abo-Lughod draws her argument on the Afghanistan war, where she argues that Americans spoke to the world about the depressed Afghani women, who needs to be save from their uncivilized society, and given freedom and liberty. The American agenda is not only to save Afghani women, but to have a legitimate cover and reason for their military intervention in Afghanistan (Ibid).

Furthermore, American media links terrorism to the Taliban regime in a way that become interchangeable. They interpret the Taliban regulation against women as striping women of their dignity, and claiming that the American intervention is to save those women and release them from being confined in their homes (Ibid).

The treatment of these women should be more respectful, considering the differences in societies, histories and the differences in the structured desires and “instead of focusing on one issue about those women (as represented, saving them from the veil, and liberating them), and looking from down on them from the position of the free and civilized. Western media needs to consider the women’s culture, and work to help them attain human rights, and making the world a better place, rather than organizing strategic military, and economic demands” (Ibid, p789).

Theorising media

In the discourse on violence against women, especially when race and ethnicity are involved, Western media usually depict the stories in a one-sided manner, blaming the issues on ethnicity or race, ignoring the fact that not all “the members” of the same ethnicity or religion are criminals or capable of committing a crime (Gill & Brah, 2013).

Media reports since the eighties, focused on the victims, and their reaction about the violence they endure, a type of rendering that may not “help to ‘develop public understanding of the social context of violence and may impede social change that could prevent violence’” (Ibid, p81).

British media, for instance, consistently links violence to a specific ethnicity or race, which leads to influencing the viewer or the public to feel that some societies are in need of change and moderating (Ibid). To give an understanding about the factors associated with violence against women, should “explore the intersection of culture with gender and other axes of differentiation: it is a question of inequality, not just of culture” (Ibid, p84,) instead of the pure talk about culture and violence (Ibid).

The media’s focus on violence against women framed within an ethnicity or race can underscores the idea of the unequal gendered relationships, and violence against women in general, linking violence with ethnicity, and reproducing this idea over and over, that violence against women is a synonym to violence in a specific groups or society, resulting in preventative policies, which do not serve the general gendered based violence as whole, and

10 limit the challenge of the power relations between the sexes , as well as the idea that sexual violence only happen to the “others” (Wendt, 2012).

Theorising “thingness”

Elizabeth Grosz definition of sexuality is that “sexuality is social, constructing and constructed of power” (Grosz, 2004, p16).

Grosz argues that the emphasis on women and their reproductive ability and applying “dichitomour thinking” which necessarily hierarchizes and ranks the two polarized terms, as putting the body in a side that do not have what the mind has, body is thus what is not the mind, the body takes on all the negative associations of the non-intellectual, passive, organic. Putting women much closer to their body in the negative picture of it and reducing women to mere biological instrument. The woman’s body becomes more adhesion to its “objects” (Grosz, 2004).

The relation between women and their body limits women to their biology. Men are defined as intellectual and women as biological. This suggests that women in addition to being an instrument of reproduction, are also the weaker sex and in need of protection (Ibid).

The discourse of linking women to the body, can produce a gender division and putting women in the category of “thing”, objectifying women (Ibid).

Catharine Mackinnon argues that women’s sexuality is socially constructed, and that sexuality can become whatever the culture defines it (Mackinnon, 1989).

Where the idea of being a thing for sexual use undermines equalities between the sexes, “gender and sexuality become functions of each other” (ibid, p143), where the gender division between the sexes shapes women’s sexuality and women become the weaker gender (Ibid).

3-Method

It is fair to assume that the interviews conducted with Yazidi women who experienced sexual violence under ISIS captivity, is a way to know how these women were portrayed by the media, and how the media and the interviewer represented them. Reports, interviews and articles that contain interviews with Yazidi women, are considered as a way in introducing these women to the audience, by the media, and to a large audience when this media is widely distributed and has a good reputation in telling the truth. It thereby fair to conclude that the analysis of such interviews and reports can show the general picture of media representation of sexual violence survivors such as Yazid women, and that media discourse will be of value to how the media presented, represented and portrait these women. In order to know if there exists a different in the media discourse about women facing sexual violence during war including Congolese women in the Congo war, Libyan war, and Yazidi women in ISIS war , Western media and Arab media were analysed. The aim was to understand how Yazidi women were portrayed by Western media and if Yazid women been portrayed by western media as Congolese women or Libyan women, and to see if Arabic media has approached it differently.

The method will consist of carrying out qualitative study using CDA. Sixty-four interviews with Yazidi women that been published online will analysed. The study will consist of critical discourse analysis on media verbal and nonverbal accounts in representing the Yazidi women in order to explore how they portrayed these women. Interviews been accessed online, by these media channels, CNN, BBC, DW, France 24, The Guardian, ALAan TV, ALArabia, ALJazeera, Sky news arabia, Annahar. Analysis of Western media will accompany analysis of Arabic media. Previous studies of Western media representation of war or women have been done, but to my knowledge, such studies were not conducted with a media of vastly different background and culture such as Arabic media.

The empirical data used and analysed in this thesis is collected from different sources from the internet. The interviews are of varying formats, either videos or written. The interviews are published on the net, and the women had given consent before the interviews so there is no approbation needed.

The material in this study does not depend on interviews with the informants, as the interviews have been conducted already by journalists and published on different channels, there was no need to acquire consent and no measures to be taken in regard to the interviewees’ anonymity nor data storage. However, this does not mean that the ethical consideration is not a part of the study, research ethics are considered in the study overall, for analysis, results, citations, and the right to use material.

The limitation of the selection is dependent on the material found online, as not all the women who were captured by ISIS, gave an appearance or told their story, and not all the channels available widespread been selected. The selection consider Western and Arab channels that are considered credible by the majority of the public. This study analyses the way Yazidi women were represented by the selected channels.

Western media:

The Western media material used in this study is available online and been published on the channel’s websites and YouTube. The material contains interviews with Yazidi women that were captured by ISIS, interviews held at various types of channels as well as published online. The channels are chosen as a representative of Western media are: CNN, BBC, France 24, DW and The Guardian. The selection of channels is based on the large circulation in their countries and their popularity around the world, which this makes them international. The selected channels are also chosen for their credibility and reputation.

CNN is an American news television (Time warner, 2011), ranked third in viewership among cable news networks (Joella, 2019). CNN received in 1988 the Four Freedom award for the freedom of speech among many other awards (Roosevelt institute, 2015). BBC the British broadcasting corporation, it is the world’s oldest national broadcaster (BBC news, 2007) where established under a royal charter, it broadcasts in many languages and considered one of the most respected news channels (Leighton, 2005). France24 is a French state-owned international news television network (France24, 2017), its channels broadcast in different languages to reach a wide range of audience and its mission is to "provide a global public service and a common editorial stance" (France24, 2012). DW “Deutsche Welle” is a German

13 state-owned network founded by the German federal tax budget, its headquarters stated in Bonn and Berlin (DW info), and it is a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU info). The Guardian is a British daily newspaper (The Guardian, 2015). According to Audit Bureau of Circulations UK in April 2011, the daily circulation of The Guardian is 263,907 copies (ABC data).

In order to understand how Yazidi women are portrayed by Western media, the selected channels were searched for interviews conducted with Yazidi women, and not only materials concerning Yazidis or ISIS war. The material chosen contain a direct or indirect interview with Yazidi women that been captured by ISIS during war in Iraq and Syria. Each material was watched or read, as the material contain video type interviews and written type interview, with the purpose of getting an overview of the content. The search resulted hundreds of reports and interviews, and among these, twenty-nine interviews, reports and articles were selected. The twenty-nine interviews contain a direct or indirect interview with Yazidi women and questions about their experiences. The research material includes five interviews by CNN, five interviews by France24, five interviews by BBC, five interviews by DW, and nine articles by The Guardian.

Each material was meticulously considered in order to achieve a critical discourse analysis. Notes have been taken about the verbal accounts used to describe these women, and the genres that have similarities, as been defined by Fairclough (Fairclough, 2003) Language and word choices reflect human thoughts and social realities. Also, usage of the words “our” and “their” in regard to Van Dijk (Li, 2009) notion of critical discourse analysis will be explored.

Some of the material were in Arabic and has been translated by the author. The research was conducted in both English and Arabic.

The material from the research are stored in two places, the links to the interviews and the articles on the author computer, and the notes been on paper by the author and in a file in the author’s own bookshelves.

Arab media:

The Arab media material used in this study is also available online and published on the channel’s website and YouTube. The channels selected as a representative for Arabic media are include, AL Arabia, AL Jazeera, Sky news arabia, AL Aan TV, An Nahar. The reason of attaching this study with analysis of Arab media material is to understand if there is a different in the representation of the Yazidi women by the Western media and a different cultural background media sources as the Arab media. The selection of the channels been based on the wide knowledge of these channels by the Arabic language community, and the selection was also based on the channel’s reputation of credibility.

Al Arabia is a Saudi news channels based in Dubai, launched in 2004, now broadcasting in several languages. Al Arabia website records a high number of visitors according to the channels published information (Al Arabia info). Al Jazeera is an Arabic news channel, founded in 1996, according to the information published on the channel. For decades, it struggled to provide free access to information and to consolidate principles of freedom of thought and expression (AL Jazeera info). Sky news Arabia is a channel that is partly financed by Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation, where it operates from its headquarter in Abo Dhabi UAE (Sky news arabia info). The channel claims to commit to independent reporting (Martin, 2012), and it broadcasts to over 50 million household in the MENA region (Flanagan, 2012). AL Aan TV broadcasts its content from Dubai UAE, built based on the pillars of professionalism and impartiality (AL Aan TV info). An Nahar is a daily newspaper published in Lebanon, launched in 1933 as a four-page paper, and now hailed as Lebanon’s equivalent of The New York Times (Glass, 2007). According to my knowledge, these channels are well known in Arabic speaking countries.

The same procedure as above been carried out to select the material used in this study. The material that contains direct or indirect interview with Yazidi women who experienced the ISIS war. The search resulted seventeen interviews, three interviews by AL Aan TV, one article by Annahar, four interviews and one article by AL Arabia, two interviews and two articles by AL Jazeera. In order to understand how Yazidi women were portrayed by Arab media, verbal accounts and genres were considered. The materials were in Arabic and all the quates been translated to English by the author. The storing process also continued as above.

Critical Discourse analysis

Discourse has been defined as the exercises and practises that reflect human thoughts and social realities through combination of words and that simultaneously construct meaning in the word (Fairclough, 2003).

Discourse is used to refer primarily to spoken or written language use, though the notion can be extended to be as a form of social practice. Viewing language use as social practice, implies that it is a mode of action, and it is socially situated mode of action, in controversial relationship with other facets of “the social”, “it is socially shaped, but it is also socially shaping or constitutive” (Fairclough, 1995,p131), where the critical discourse analysis explores the tension between these two sides of language use.

Critical discourse analyse as a theory of language stresses its multifunctionality, “which sees any text as simultaneously enacting the ‘ideational’, ‘interpersonal’, and ‘textual’ functions of language” (Ibid).

Critical discourse analysis means “discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between discursive practises, events and texts, and wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes, to investigate how such practices, events and texts, arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power, and to explore how the opacity these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony” (Ibid, p133).

Critical discourse analysis will be used in this thesis, as a way of analysing the spoken, written and exhibited text and videos with consideration to complex social structures. Where the critical discourse analysis is a method to investigate the “strategic” practises in the discourse (Ibid, 126), it will be a great method to use in investigating this study.

Van Dijk defines critical discourse analysis as a new cross-discipline that comprises the theory and analysis of text and talk in virtually all disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, where the analysis is held as the following, first learning the textual features of discourses, second text interpretation and interaction, third putting the text in context, dealing with the broader social and cultural conditions of discourse production and interpretation (van Dijk,

2001). The results observed and obtained from the first instance will interpret using feminist theories as mentioned in the theoretical framework section in this thesis.

Van Dijk argues that one single approach to CDA will not be sufficient in analysing texts and media (van Dijk, 2001). Bearing this in mind, two approaches for CDA will be used in analysing the media in this thesis, Van Dijk approach and Fairclough, which together with the feminist theoretical framework are well suited to meet the goals and objectives of the present study.

Van Dijk” ideological square” notion, which express the ideas of two strategies, the positive ”ingroup” description and negative ”outgroup” description, is a way of perceiving and representing the world and specifically “their” and “our” actions, position and role within the world. Fairclough “intertextuality” notion which defined as a way of building a bridge between text and discourse practice that makes it possible to follow and discover the traces of the discourse practice in the text, such as “manifest intertextuality” and ”constitutive intertextuality”. The first refers to the way words are selected and contextualised, the second to the generic conventions and types of discourse (Li, 2009). Fairclough vision of critical discourse analysis is not limited to analysis words in the text but also can be used to analyse images in the same way (Fairclough, 2003).

Fairclough concluded that we shall not only look for what is present in the text, but also for what is absent (Ibid).

4- Background about Yazidis, Background about ISIS:

What is ISIS?

ISIS is a military group with an ideology based on the Islam Sunna religion, which is considered radical Salafi Islam (Dyer &Tobey, 2015). They aim to take control of areas like Iraq and Syria, in order to build a state where all citizens under their rule must be Muslims and conform to Sharia law (Ibid). Sharia law according to ISIS’ belief are the rules derived from the Quran, the Book of God (Ibid). ISIS’s objective is to implement Sharia law on all the matters of life, from the way people dress to what they eat, punishing those who don’t adhere by whipping or

17 cutting off their arms. The main language for ISIS is Arabic, which is also the language of the Quran (Ibid).

ISIS ideology has been rejected and criticised by many Islamic countries and religious leaders, who consider it radical (Ibid).

The state ISIS built in Iraq and Syria, is called The Khalifa, who is also known as ISIL, IS, ISIS. ISIS is the name of the group who builds a state in areas in Iraq and Syria and refers to The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Arabic name for it is Daesh (Ibid).

In 2014, August the third, ISIS attacked Mount Sinjar in Iraq, where the population is Yazidis (Human rights council, 2016). The attack was well organized by ISIS fighters, as they surrounded the area, leaving Yazidis living there under their mercy (Ibid). Based on the UN reports and documents, ISIS acts towards Yazidis are considered genocidal (Ibid). After ISIS put their hand on the area, they separated men and women, treating the Yazidis women and girls as property to sell at souk al sabaya, a slave market (De Vido, 2018).

Who are the Yazidis?

In order to understand the Yazidi’s history, one must consider their heritage. Yazidis, or Yezidis, or Iyzidis, are primarily located in Northern Iraq, North-Eastern Syria, South-Eastern Turkey and in the Caucasus. The Yazidis’ main language is Kurdish. Yazidis’ religion is called ‘Yazdanism’, which is descended from an ancient religion called ‘cult of angels’, according to some authors, it is a synthesis of Mithraism, Mazdaism, and Zoroastrianism (De Vido, 2018). Yazdanism is a unique religion. It has its own philosophy and faith, with an emphasis on angels, and natural elements, such as the sun, water, air, and ﬁre, which are considered sacred (Ibid). Religion and tribal law have the most affect in the construction of family law, wherein for a child to be born as Yazidi, both parents should be Yazidi (Ibid). Yazidi women and men cannot marry someone who does not belong to their group (Ibid). These are the reasons why Yazidi women feared of being excluded by their community (Ibid). The spiritual leader of Yazidis decided after the violence Yazidi women experienced by ISIS to give them support, and advised the Yazidi community to reintegrate their women (Davis, L, 2019).

ISIS believe that the Yazidi people do not belong to the “people of the Book”, meaning the Quran⎯ the “Book of God” according to Islamic religion. ISIS claimed that Yazidis are non- believers (Freamon, 2015).

5- Analysis:

Critical discourse in western media:

The focus of the study was on the verbal accounts of the journalist’s description of the Yazidi women they interviewed, the questions asked and the similar genres between the different types of channels.

The results of the study will be presented in categories and material will be presented together with examples from individual material, in order to discuss discursive patterns that were revealed. The categories are based on the questions journalists asked the Yazidi women. Three most common questions are regarding, 1) the women’s sexual violence experience, 2) the way this sexual violence happened, and 3) the help Yazidi women received.

Categorising the material helps address the similarities found by the different channels and arrange the study and analysis in the most productive way. In each category analysis of verbal accounts used to describe Yazidi women are carried out. It needs to be noted that sometimes the interview questions belong to more than one category.

First, the questions about sexual violence experience. The most repeated question in the interviews conducted by Western media with Yazidi women is: Did you get raped? (BBC, The hard talk, 2016) (France24 English, 2016) (France24 English, April2016) (CNN Arabic,2018) (BBC News Arabic, 2018).

The formulation of the question is varied: What they did to you? (France24 English, 2017), How many times have you been sold? (Graham-Harrison, The Guardian, 2017), How many men where you passed to? (CNN, 2015). In a way or another the question, did you get raped? was present in all the interviews by BBC, DW, CNN, France24channels and The Guardian.

In most of the interviews the focus was personal. The journalists wanted Yazidi women to tell their personal experience of sexual violence, thereby asking them to tell details about the rape, including the way it happened, by whom, and for how many times. They urged the women to recount all the details, over and over again.

One Yazidi women said in an interview, I was raped every day for six months (BBC News, 2017). Another Yazidi shared that They put us in a raw to choose between us, they were looking at us to see who was beautiful, every fighter gets the woman he wants (The Guardian, 2017). Another Yazidi woman recounted that Each IS fighter was holding the hand of a Yazidi girl and took her or himself (BBC report, 2015) Girls were raped and sold again and again (DW Arabic, 2015) a Yazidi woman said to DW.

It is very clear that Western media spot-lighted sexual violence, to benefit their viewers, forcing the women to repeat their stories in very specific details.

The journalists did not stop with questions like, did you get raped? But also continued with questions like how many times? One journalist asked the women to give details about the men who raped her, their names, etc., How many men raped you? I was passed on for four times, the first one gave me as a gift to the other one and so on (BBC Arabic, 2018).

In searching for the verbal accounts describing Yazidi women by the Western media, some words appeared in every interview. Yazidi women used the words are “slave” “sex slave” to describe the situation ISIS put them in, but Western media repeated these words in describing the women they interviewed. This language exists in the interviews as well as reports and articles, such as:

I was sold seven times, the Yazidi women welcomed back into the faith (The Guardian, Emma Graham Harrison, 2017)

Yazidi women: Slaves of the Caliphate (BBC report, 2015)

Yazidi women held as sex slaves by IS (BBC news, 2015)

Escaped Yazidi sex slave of IS group (France24 English, April,2016)

Yazidi former sex slave recalls IS group hell in Iraq (France24 English, 2016)

Former Islamic state group sex slave Jinan narrates her dreadful story (France24 English, 2015)

CNN exclusive interview with former sex slave of ISIS leader (CNN, July 2016)

From the title of the interviews, the Yazidi women are reduced to their sexual violence experience, as a way to attract the viewers and/or readers to the news channels. Where every channel hosts different women and girls, asking them mostly the same questions about rape, and slavery. I was enslaved, I was sex slave and home slave (DW Arabic, 2016) one Yazidi women using these words to answer the journalist.

The questions asked of the Yazidi women, especially about slavery and the times they have been sold and bought, gave them no choice but to answer the questions using words like “thing” “object” “animal” to describe the details. One Yazidi woman said, Girls were raped then sold again as products (DW Arabic, 2015). Another Yazidi girl told her interviewer that they were selling us as animals (BBC News, 2017). We are slaves to them, we are things, we do not have a right to tell our opinion in front of them (BBC News Arabic, 2018) another Yazid woman tells the interviewer. This description were also present when the journalists introduced the women in the interview, saying to the audience The captive women bought and sold like cattle…(CNN, 2014).

The repetitions of the same story of being bought and sold again and again, using words like “thing” “animal,” “object” can encourage the reader and the viewer to also see these women who were raped as objects. Elizabeth Grosz’s argument about linking women to their bodily parts is a way in marginalizing women as an object, applies in this case to describe the outcome of Western media’s focus on stories of sexual assault, focusing on the way Yazidi women were bought and sold in the slave market as a “thing”. Western audience will view Yazidi women as different from them and become complicit in objectifying these women. In the same context this objectifying will be interpretated as Yazidi women are in need of protection, because they are weak and a thing (Grosz, 2004) Western viewers believe that their stories of sexual violence are different from these women. Baaz and Stern argued that western women stories of being raped are not frequently covered by the media. No one would dare to go to the hospital in New York or in Stockholm to ask a woman that was recently exposed to sexual violence about her experience. She is protected from the media (Baaz & Stern, 2013). But with Yazidi women, western media does not only focus on their personal violence experience, but also on the details of rape and slavery.

Cathy Otten in her article Slaves of ISIS in The Guardian, describes the rape stories of women she interviewed slaves are presented as compensation for fighters… Slavery serves to increase the Isis community because Yazidi women will give birth and the children will be brought up among its fighters…. Women were then sold in markets, either electronically over a mobile phone messenger app where their photos and slave numbers were exchanged, or in market halls and prisons at prearranged times…. We were just like sheep (Otten, C, The Guardian, 2017). Parts of the description the journalist uses is a citation from ISIS fighter, and parts of from the Yazidi woman she interviewed, and parts from the journalist’s own writing. In one way or another, her focus remains on stories of slavery, how these women were like “sheep,” “a thing”, and used for reproduction. Western journalises continued to perpetuate the idea about rape and sexual violence against Yazidi women as different from that which happened to western women. They portrayed Yazidi women by linking them to their bodily parts, putting them in the “object” category, and focusing on details of rape, the way it happened, how they were subjected to slavery. They create a spectacle for western audience, making them believe that this would never happen to “us,” in western society.

This division in reporting sexual violence stories between western women and women from the other side of the world like Congolese women, Yazidi women, can reinforce the idea of “other” and “us”, as Mohanty argued that describing the “other” as different, not sharing the same characteristic, having a different type of experience that do not resemble the western experience, and putting women from the “other” side of the world in the group of the “other” (Mohanty, 1988, 2003).

Based on reports by UN, the majority of Yazidi women who experienced sexual violence, applied for asylum in western countries, which means that these women will live in countries that consider them as the “other,” consistent with how they have been portrayed by Western media. This portrayal can have major impact on their new lives.

Based on the interview questions Yazidi women are subjected to by western media, it is clear that the same process was adopted in portraying Yazidi women as it was used to portray Congolese women, to attract the western audience. (Baaz & Stern, 2013).

Western media’s word choices like “slave” used to introduce Yazidi women who experienced sexual violence, contribute in reinforcing the idea of these women as objects, reducing them

22 to their body, removing their agency, ultimately othering them from Western viewers and the Western world.

Second, questions about the way sexual violence held.

The frequently repeated questions Yazidi women get were about ISIS fighters and whether or not they were merciful. Questions of this nature tend to follow the women’s stories of sexual assault.

In one interview the journalists asked about Abo baker al Baghdadi, who was the head of the Islamic state group, if he ever showed mercy, Was he ever kind to you? (CNN, July 2016)

In another interview by the BBC the journalist followed up after the woman told her rape story if the men who raped her had shown any mercy, Do they ever have mercy? Did you ask them for mercy? Even their women did not have mercy? (BBC News Arabic, 2018)

In an interview by the BBC, the journalist asked Did they show you any compassion? (BBC Hardtalk, 2016)

This kind of questions occur in the video interviews, and not in the written interviews. But the answers from the women are available in all different formats. The typical answers were, “we were slaves, we were sex slaves”. Sometimes, the journalist would compare the Yazidi women’s situation to slavery, saying that they were held as slaves, and men can do whatever they want to the women and girls, raping them, beating them, selling them. They can take their pick, even girls of only nine years of age (for example: BBC 2015, BBC 2016, The Guardian 2017, Francepresse The Guardian, 2015, France24 English, 2017).

Western media also focused on the environment Yazidi women been in during their captivity by asking questions about the slavery situation and about its cost.

In one interview the journalists asked Yazidi women about the cost of buying a slave, Do you know how much it costs to buy a sex slave? (DW Arabic, 2015)

Another newspaper titled its article ISIS slave markets sell girls for as little as a pack of cigarettes (Francepresse The Guardian, 2015).

A journalist asked a Yazidi woman after she told her that she was sold, Do you know how much he got for selling you (BBC Arabic News, 2018)

In the same contest, Western media treats the crimes committed by ISIS by focusing on their religious background rather than the political reason for ISIS’s aims to build a state. In The guardian article by Otten, she writes According to ISIS, it has no choice but to attack and kill disbelieving men. Flowing from this, it justifies the enslaving of their women as an act of protection, a way of replacing the men who previously looked after them…. The enslavement, for Isis, is meant to eventually bring the women to Islam… (Otten, C, The Guardian, 2017), the journalist brought up the idea that ISIS faith can be blamed for the violence they conduct.

In the same vein, in another article by The Guardian the author writes claiming that rape of non-Muslims was a form of worship (Harrison, E, The Guardian, 2017).

It is permissible to buy, sell, or give as a gift a female captive and slaves, or they are merely property, which can’t the Muslim Ummah any harm or damage…. This sentence been shared in a report by BBC, stating that it is from an ISIS document (BBC News, 2015).

The blaming discourse also appeared in these following examples:

He makes you watch a movie of a Journalist being beheaded, and told you this is going to happen to you if you do not convert to Islam? (CNN, July 2016)

They forced us to convert to Islam if we want to be safe and not get killed (BBC News, 2015).

One told me you are infidels; you must be enslaved. They said this is our Sharia. So, they are doing it in the name of religion? (France24 English, 2016)

They wanted to convert us by force to be Muslims (France24 English, 2015).

As shown above, ISIS’s religion was brought up to the audience, which insinuates that their religion is responsible for this kind of violence. The focus on the religious background or the “ethnicity” and reproducing this idea over and over, that violence against women is a synonym to violence in a specific groups or society, resulting in preventative policies, which do not serve the general gendered based violence as whole, and limit the challenge of the power relations between the sexes, as well as the idea that sexual violence only happen to the “others” (Wendt, 2012).

This correlation of sexual violence to the ethnicity or religion, gives western audience the false sense that this kind of violence exists far away and does not happen in the West, reinforcing the concept of “other” and “us”. The “other” is different (Mohanty, 2003). These women are “other” therefore they face this kind of violence. These women will be affected by being “other”, as Mohanty argued that this kind of division affects mostly the vulnerable, especially women and girls from third world countries (Mohanty, 2003). Those who seek asylum in western countries will face this prejudice, which will affect their lives.

The journalist separates themselves from the women they interview. Even when the journalist is female, she looked as though she isn’t a part of this in any way. The audience then believes that this kind of violence only happens over “there”.

According to van Dijk ideological square which encapsulates the twin strategies of positive” ingroup” description and negative” outgroup” description (Hakam, 2009), the description of the Western media about ISIS war, gives the audience an idea that this kind of situation does not belong to the “us”, as the blaming discourse in Western media put the west in the square of “ingroup” as in the good place, and put the “other” in the “outgroup”. This reinforces the division between the “we” and “them” (Mohanty, 2003).

In a comparison with the study of Baaz and Stern (2013), Western media continued to describe the ISIS war as they described the Congo war, as “barbaric” and different than western wars.

The focus on blaming ISIS’s religion for the type of violence Yazidi women suffered, does not help to develop public understanding of the social context of violence and may impede social change that could prevent violence and displace gendered based violence from being under the focus (Gill&Brah, 2014).

In comparison with media coverage about sexual violence in Libya’s war (Garraio, 2012), there was an ethicizing of sexual violence. Garraio found that the ethicizing process in Libya’s coverage was based on the suffering of Libyan women due to their cultural background. The ethicizing process here for Yazidi women were focused on the religious background for the preparators.

Third, questions about the help Yazidi women got In many interviews conducted with Yazidi women, questions about the help and services these women got by the humanitarian organizations was the main focus, in addition to questions about their lives after escaping ISIS. In many interviews there were questions about the global organizational help, the basic necessities and the medical help and the psychological help these women received.

In more than one interview a journalist introduced the women they interviewed as a former sex slave who now lives in a UN camp in Turkey or northern Iraq (for example DW English 2018, DW Arabic 2016, BBC News 2017).

In another interview by DW the journalist met a woman in Germany, a Yazidi woman who escaped ISIS captivity, and asked her about the help she got from global organizations when she was at the camp, and about the help she is getting in Germany now, and whether or not she felt safe.

A Yazidi woman lived in hell for over one hundred days…Arrived to Germany through a program that help Yazidi women…. The interviewer asked the woman questions about the help she gets, Did they put you in a care centre in Germany to help to you?...Is there a special program for you in the care centre? Do you get a psychological help after the suffering you experienced? At the end of the interview the women said We know that we are safe here (DW Arabic, 2015)

In another report by DW about a Yazidi woman who was captured by ISIS, the journalist met the women and her family in a camp set for the Yazidis, the journalist talks while the camera films the woman and her children playing, eating, and milking the goats the family got from the camp supervisors The family was given a twenty sheep by an aid organization….they get their living from…A child care facility was set up in this camp, today eight year old Hara read from the board….We learn to read here so I can help my father who cannot read… (DW English, 2018)

In one report named Refugees helped by France to escape the brutal grasp of ISIS, the journalist met Yazidi women escaped from ISIS. The focus in the report was on the help France gave to these women. In the report the journalist talks about these women and how one woman’s husband died in Mount Sinjar trying to escape ISIS. At the same time, the documentary juxtaposes the report with images of the woman preparing food for her children in her new

26 house in France, cutting vegetables, and putting fruits on a plate, and serving her children a meal. She says I hope I will live a nice life in France…where one French man in the report, who works for the government saying: This women grew up in patriarchal society and I will help them to be as independent as possible…Each family gets an apartment…Are you happy for this? (France24 English, 2020).

In an interview on BBC the interviewer treated the three Yazidi women she interviewed as victims who escaped from ISIS, and the journalist as their saviour. The film showed the journalist and the Yazidi women in a church in London as a place that is considered of its safety and warmth, reinforcing the idea of western civilization saving these women. (BBC News, 2015).

In an article by The Guardian the writer did not forget to mention that there is a potential help coming to help Yazidi woman A UN technical team is due to travel to the region to work out details of the plan to help victims of Isis sexual violence. (Francepresse The Guardian,2015)

The help Yazidi women got by the UN, or any other global organization and funds, was clearly stated in many articles and interviews conducted by Western media.

Western media portrayed Western countries who funded camps and care centres for Yazidi women as heroes who came to save the “other” from their misery. The “other” is in need of help, in need of change, in need to be reformed, and then arrives the Western “saviour” who can bring the “other” to safety (Abo Lughod, 2003).

Western media discourse in portraying the west as the saviour put the west in the square of the inner, the inner as the good, and put Yazidi women and the place they come from in the “outer” square, the outer who is not good, according to van Dijk ideological square (Hekman,2009).

This coverage and overwhelming focus on how western countries saved Yazidi women who suffered sexual violence, reinforces the division of “other” and “us”, considering the “other” who in need of help and saving are “other”, as in the same context Mohanty argued that this division of “other” “third world women” can have a major impact on women from the east (Mohanty, 1988), and in this situation have a major impact on the way western audience can look at these women, who came to the media to tell their stories.

Some of the channels did not only mention the organizational help for Yazidi women, but also questioned the women they interviewed if they want to get military help who are still in ISIS captivity. For example, in this interview with Nadia Murad who is a Yazidi woman that became an idol because she managed to escape from ISIS and became a human right activist, seeking justice for Yazidis and Yazidi women, and she was awarded the Nobel prize for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict (The Nobel peace prize announcement). In the interview the journalist asked Nadia Murad You would like them prosecuted in an international court…Do you also want to see soldiers ground troops go in from western countries to take over the Islamic state…(BBC The hard talk, 2016)

This portrayed western countries as heroic, with courts that can bring justice, as well as a strong military that can defeat Islamic State and save Yazidi women from its captivity. This recalls the saving notion by Abo-Lughod, which also can be utilized for political reasons (Abo- Lughod, 2003). In the Afghanistan war, where the Taliban an Islamic group who controlled the country and forced several roles on the Afghani people, the first lady of America conducted many interviews talking about the Afghani women, from their oppression, how they are in need of saving from these controlling roles in their lives, to the way they dress. Soon after, the American army landed in Afghanistan using this saving notion the first lady talked about, which eventually became obvious that their appearance was also for political reasons (Ibid). The portrayal of the west as heroes and saviour can be for political gain. Indeed, there was an American and western army intervention in Syria and Iraq.

Western media’s language such as “safe”, “help”, in talking about the west from a syntactic perspective. Western organizations are the agent of the interview and they are the one whose image and voice been empowered through the use of “intertextuality” based on Fairclough (Li, 2009).

As in most of the media coverage of Congo war, the media spotlighted the services global organizations arranged for Congolese women who suffered sexual violence (Baaz & Stern, 2013). The notion of saving emerged in the coverage, as in Libyan war as Garraio argued (Garraio, 2012) that there has been an adaptation embedded in the long tradition of Orientalist discourses about “saving the women from the Third World” in the media coverage of Libyan women sexual violence coverage.

Critical discourse in Arab media:

An analysis of Arab media representation of Yazidi women and the difference between their representation and the Western media representation.

Some Arab media presented the Yazidi women they interviewed as “survivors”, by using this word in the title of the interview, or article. This kind of representation did not exist in the Western media discourse. Consider the following examples:

A story of a survivor Yazidi women (ALAan TV, 2020)

Survivor Yazidi women engage in social life (Al Jazeera, 2019)

A Yazidi woman who escaped ISIS captivity (Al Jazeera net, 2015)

Arab media pushed their presentation of Yazidi women as survivors, giving a specific descriptions about them as being a ‘survivor’ and ‘looking to the future’, as in the following examples:

A journalist went to a camp for Yazidis and interviewed Yazidi women captured by ISIS. He spoke of the Yazidi women as survivors, working women, having hope.

These girls are known as the survivors, but most of them they do not want to tell their past story under ISIS captivity, they want to erase that era of their lives and remembering it, and their eyes looking to the future…Life goes on, this what they decided women suffered war, you see them want to move on with their lives, and forget what they suffered by working and reengaging in society (Aljazeera, 2019)

A journalist met a Yazidi girl, who suffered sexual violence by ISIS, where she also presented her as survivor a young beautiful girl who has her future ahead of her (Sky news arabia, 2016)

A meeting with Yazidi woman, who suffered sexual violence by ISIS, portraying her as full of life, wants to fight her past, and have dreams for her future, presenting her in the first place as survivor, survivor Yazidi woman… The Yazidi woman is now a painter. The journalist met her in the studio, spoke with her about her work. She shared that now after I am freed, I

29 started to draw paintings represent what ISIS did for Yazidis…. Where the journalist also asked her in in a way that he tells the audience that this is a painter, a survivor, who has a future…What do you want for the future? (Alrabie K, 2019)

However, Arab media has not always shown Yazidi women who suffered sexual violence as ’survivors’, Like their Western media counterpart, they also focused on the sexual violence Yazidi women suffered and portrayed them in the category of “the body” using words like ‘slave’, ‘sex slave’ in presenting them in the interview and asking them specifically on their sexual violence experience, asking them to retell their story, asking the same questions Western media also asked, about rape,’ How?’ ‘Who?’ ‘How many times?’ in the following examples:

Did you get raped? How many times?.... (Sky news arabia, 03,2016)

They raped girls aged nine year old, and one of them got pregnant, and died because of it…Do you think of returning to your home?....Is it true that there were a trade market for women and girls, and did they dressed those women specific clothes to sell them?.... (Sky news arabia, 04,2016)

What they did to you? How they choose you? ....They said you are slaves, the fighter came and every one choose the girl he wanted and he liked… (Sky news arabia, 03,2016)

How many times you have been sold? …I have been sold for fifteen times, they told us to wear specific clothes and to brush our hair so they can choose from us… (Alan TV, 2017)

A Yazidi girl said that she and other Yazidi women were examined by a medical worker to see if they are virgins or not….as the virgin was separated from the others….ISIS fighter smelled them every day to choose which one he is going to sex with today…(Kharsa R, AlArabia, 2015)

After kidnapping her, ISIS sold her with other Yazidi women in markets held for that reason…She was sold three times (Almada paper, 2019)

What they did to you? They raped us, beat us and considered us as a commodity to fulfil their sexual needs (Sky news arabia, 12, 2015)

She been sold eleven times, chained, beaten and raped (Annahar, 2017)

In comparison to the Western media discourse, Arab media presented ISIS also as barbaric, but they did not present them in the same discourse as Western media, where Western media focused on the war, ethnicity , Arab media focused specifically on ISIS fighters, their descriptions, and how they behave with the women on the human level, giving the audience specific descriptions of ISIS fighters as ‘unhuman’, ‘animals’, portraying them as someone who the audience will never see in their life, looking as human but their souls are not human souls, as in the following examples:

How do they look? ISIS fighters, how do they look?... Like monsters (Sky news arabia,03, 2016)

They are like animals, they are not humans….(AlArabia, 12,2019)

A Yazidi woman tells horror stories about ISIS (Sky news arabia, 2015)

Arab media’s goal of representing ISIS fighters as ‘inhuman’ was followed by questioning their beliefs, their religious background. ISIS presented itself to the world as an Islamic group, working in favour of Islam, with the same ideologies and beliefs. Arab media aims to overthrow this concept and presents ISIS as far as they can from Islam. Arab media continued to compare ISIS and Islam, saying that they are not comparable.

Arab media presented ISIS fighters as ‘working against Sharia’, meaning against Islamic thoughts and beliefs. In an interview, the Arab journalist asked the woman about what ISIS thought about painting, I wasn’t be able to draw when I was under ISIS captivity, they said it’s not allowed by God (Alrabie K, 2019). This is meant to show the audience that ISIS is against Islamic beliefs as no Islamic country has ever prevented painting.

Arab media portrayed ISIS as extremists so even when ISIS uses Islamic reflections in their discourse, Arab media put ISIS thoughts in the ‘extremist’ discourse as shown in this example: the journalist wanted to compare Islam and ISIS, where Islam is compassionate, ISIS is cruel. They sold the women and raped them…ISIS are group of extremists….if she didn’t escape to an Arab Sunni family, where they sheltered her, Rohan’s mother would be a memory from the past (AlArabia, 2014)

In another example, the journalist also compared Islamic religion and ISIS, Because religion is the light and the right and other than this is desecration and fraud…God distinguished humans with mercy… (Sky news arabia,03, 2016)

In another example, These criminals do not represent Islam….The Yazidi father saying to the journalist….Do not say God…The journalist spoke to an ISIS fighter, saying that he does not act in Gods will, so he does not deserve to speak God’s name. (AlArabia, 12,2019)

In an interview with a Yazidi woman who was formerly been captured by ISIS, the channel referenced a quote by a member of national committee Bayly Wiles, saying that ISIS is a regime built on religious ideology however false… (Al Arabia, 2020)

They are thugs, perverted killers and gangs who named themselves a state….What do you say about ISIS ? The journalists asked the woman to describe ISIS, and she answered They don’t represent Islam, they are Kafer, killers, out of Islamic customs and traditions. (Sky news arabia, 04,2016)

In one article, the journalist went far in portraying ISIS violence, saying that it is a global problem concerning human trafficking, They sell and buy humans in trading markets on WhatsApp, on social media (Kokain, J, Aljazeera, 2018)….It is not an Iraq and Syria problem alone, slavery become a global problem, where a new investigating committee follows the united nations found that men from Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Egypt, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Auzbakistan, have taken part of slave trading with ISIS and other groups like Poko Haram. And social media can be blamed partly for this. (Kokain, J, Aljazeera, 2018)

In comparison with Western media discourse, Arab media objectify Yazidi women by asking questions about their sexual violence experience, and the way this happened, carrying out the conversation to the point Yazidi women confirmed that they felt as though they were objects, or products. Both Arab media and Western media treated Yazidi women’s sexuality as linked to the “body” in negative way (Grosz, 2004), Arab media coverage contains the agency discourse in presenting Yazidi women as survivors, while Western media presenting them as only slaves lacking agency.

Arab media did not use words such as “help” “save” or “safe”, and did not represent themselves as “saviours”. Though the reasons are unknown, it is possible that Arabs do not have any political agenda in this subject matter. According to Abo-Lughod’s saving notion, acting as a saviour can be for political gains (Abo-lughod,2003). Here, there is no division

32 between the journalist and the interviewer. They do not act as saviours in position of power, and do not treat the women as victims needing to be rescued, like in Western media.

Western media blamed the ethnic background of ISIS, and implied that this kind of violence and slavery is only happens far from the West. Arab media focused on the violence itself to separate Islam from ISIS and its behaviour. Both Western media and Arab media blamed either ethnical background or the unhuman non-Islamic behaviour for the sexual violence Yazidi women experienced. Ignoring the larger problem of gender equality and gendered based violence (Gill & Brah, 2013).

6- Conclusion

This study includes critical discourse analysis of the media coverage about Yazidi women who faced sexual violence during ISIS conflict in Iraq and Syria. The study analysed two media coverages, Western media and Arab media, aiming to understand how both media presented and portrayed the Yazidi women and the potential outcomes of their representations. Western media portrayed Yazidi women as victims, focusing on their sexual assaults, intruding the women’s privacy by insisting on asking about traumatic details, treating them as they are available to tell their stories reduced to their violence experience, spotting a light on the rape details. This in context constructed women sexuality as the body who is not mind, the body who is the weaker part, categorizing the women as a “thing” as discussed by Grosz 2004 and reducing them to their sexual violence experiences, consistent with the argument by MacKinnon 1989 that sexuality can be socially constructed, perpetuating the idea that Yazidi women lack agency and they are the weaker sex. Yazidi women in context became weak victims in need of protection, different from western women who are not weak. Yazidi’s women sexual violence experience portrait as different from same violence experience for western women. Yazidi women as result of this representation been constructed the “other” as discussed by Mohanty 1988, 2003.

Western media portrait ISIS war against Yazidis as different from the wars in the west, in this war there is no mercy and people are bought and sold, even the enemy is different, an enemy

33 with a religious background command him to slave women having different ethnical background, insinuating that the culture of the place or the religious background of ISIS is to blame. This portrayal of the war against Yazidis and Yazidi women also put Yazidi women in the box of being the “other” who have different experiences than the “we” in the West, and this kind of violence only exist “there”, it is an experience and situation that “we” will never put in. This troubling representation separates Yazidi women and women in the West, showing them as the ones in need of change and help, as discussed by Mohanty 1988, 2003. This can pull the sexual violence argument far from the unequal gender relations as discussed by Gill & Brah 2013, as well as suggests that those cultures are in need of modification, and that Yazidi women are in need of saving from the ISIS religious ideologies by military intervention as discussed by Abo Lughod 2003 justifying the West’s military intervention in Iraq and Syria.

Western media portrait the west as the “saviour” who help Yazidi women the victims from their misery. In context Yazidi women also became the “other” who in need of help and be brought into safety.

Yazidi women eventually above the violence sexual experience been conducted to, they been put in the discourse of being different from the women in the west. In contrast the dividing between them and western women became huge.

The wide coverage of sexual violence Yazidi women suffered, made Yazidi religious leaders to welcome back Yazidi women to their community (Graham, 2017). This idea confirms Baaz and Stern’s 2013 argument about shame decreasing after media coverage. But here also, Western media did not lose the opportunity in “ethnicizing sexual violence” (Garraio, 2012) experiences of Yazidi women by considering the cultural background of the Yazidi community, and blaming it on the suffering the escaped Yazidi women had once they returned to their community, showing how they were ostracized if they carried the unwanted children that resulted from the rapes they underwent during captivity (Chulov, 2020) (Graham, 2017).

Western media reproduced stereotypical images of the women in the East, targeting what Western audience wants to hear, giving a false or incomplete idea about Eastern women (Spivak, 1990) specifically in this case, Yazidi women. Western media assumes the role of

34 being the ones with knowledge (Ibid) and portrays Yazidi women according to their dominant values, and “othering” Yazidi women.

During the study I have observed some notes about Western media coverage: the portrait of Yazidi women’s sexuality as merely “body” existed on all channels, as well as questions about ISIS fighters’ mercy. The religious background of ISIS only appeared on channels in the English speaking countries, BBC and CNN, and in France24 the English version. The help notion (organizational help) was strongly available in all the DW versions and France24, while the military saving discourse is only detected in BBC.

Arab media, in retaliation, want to separate Islam from ISIS actions, and exclude themselves from the box of “the culture that is being blamed” as discussed by Gill & Brah 2013. Arab media also presented Yazid women sexuality in the “body” discourse but did not portray them as lacking agency but rather as survivors with a future. In context “othering” Yazidi women was not found here.

The sexual violence Yazidi women are exposed to can be understood under all the scholarly theory of sexual violence during times of conflict. It is a gendered based violence, a genocidal conflict, and ethnic- based conflict. As according to human rights council 2016 crimes against Yazidis considered as genocide, “ISIS came to destroy Yazidi, cutting them off from beliefs and practices of their own religious community, and erasing their identity as Yazidis” (HRC, 2016, p1). “Rape and sexual violence, when committed against women and girls as part of a genocide, is a crime against a wider protected group, but it is equally a crime committed against a female, as an individual, on the basis of her sex” (Ibid, p24). But the media coverage seems to ignore or is not interested in this argument. Their focus was on delivering a specific political and ideological agenda. Both coverages ignored the concept of rape as a weapon of war. Where “Rape as a Weapon of War discourse promises deliverance and even retribution, casts rape as avoidable. Casting sexual violence as strategic, systematic, rational situates the gendered violent subject in a moral world whose contours we recognize. His weapon can be mastered and regulated as other weapons can. This works in this way: rapists are (re)cast as rational modern subjects who can be held accountable for their rational choices to implement the strategy and wield the weapon of rape” (Baaz & Stern, 2013, p108-109).

In this study the unravelling of Western media and Arab media ideological stance and the ways they choose to achieve their political objectives, was conducted within the invaluable help of van Dijk‘s and Fairclough proposed framework of critical discourse analyse.

In regards to limitations and suggestions for future research the sample size needs to be discussed. In this study the material chosen were about Yazidi women for the sake of the study questions. There is, however, always the chance of additional information with a larger sample size, when other elements are considered. A sample size that include all cases of sexual violence during war in Iraq and Syria, would be of interest to this study. It is possible that additional information can be added. It would be of interest to know how other women coming from other ethnic backgrounds experienced sexual violence during war in Iraq and Syria and how they were portrayed by the media, and if there a specific categories or terms must be included in the women to be under coverage. Like in Libyan war when media only covered women stories who got raped by the Libyan military and ignored others (Garraio, 2012).

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Appendix: Media Material

Western Media (BBC)

BBC 2015, Yazidi women: Slaves of the Caliphate, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO1r0s2mw1k , Accessed 3 April 2020

BBC News, 2015, Yazidi women held as sex slaves by IS, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOLucKAcHOE&ab_channel=BBCNews Accessed 18 September 2020

BBC 2016, BBC The hard talk with Nadia Murad, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRbHxsPLmkg , Accessed 1 April 2020

BBC 2017, I was raped everyday for six months, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDniN3k5aQ8 , Accessed 3 April 2020

:Available at ,مأساة االيزيديين في العراق في شهادة ليلى تعلو ,BBC News Arabic, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et0BMIoflO8&ab_channel=BBCNews%D8%B9%D8% B1%D8%A8%D9%8A Accessed at 20 October 2020.

(CNN)

:Available at ,داعش يجمع االيزيديات ويغتصب فتيات في سن الزهور ,CNN Arabic, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR76cMJ9M8w&t=12s&ab_channel=CNNArabic Accessed 2 September 2020

CNN, 2014, Yazidi women bought and sold by ISIS, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlIXJ4WFNXw&ab_channel=CNN ,Accessed 1October 2020

CNN, 2015, Yazidi women raped and sold by ISIS, Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/10/06/freedom-project-yazidi-women- raped-and-sold-shubert-pkg.cnn Accessed 2 September 2020

CNN, July, 2016, CNN exclusive interviwe with former slave of ISIS leader, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOKFxWlSwo&ab_channel=CNN Accessed 2 September 2020.

:Available at ,االيزيدية نادية مراد تتحدث عن ماساة اغتصابها من داعش ,CNN Arabic, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0IZERJU9xY&ab_channel=CNNArabic Accessed 1 September 2020. (DW)

Available at ,الجزء االول. االيزيدية فاتن عناصر داعش ضربونا واغتصبونا كالوحوش ,DW Arabic 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDT4vagaVUc , Accessed 9 May 2020

Available at ,الجزء الثاني. االيزيدية فاتن عناصر داعش ضربونا واغتصبونا كالوحوش ,DW Arabic 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49UV2ARvwjI , Accessed 9 May 2020

Available at ,قصة فتاة يزيدية تقف في وجه داعش ,DW Arabic 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaXXin2Tip0 , Accessed 9 May 2020

Available at ,نساء الرقة و شبابها يتنفسون الصعداء بعد هزيمة داعش ,DW Arabic 2017 https://www.dw.com/ar/%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A1- %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A9-

%D9%88%D8%B4%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%A7- %D9%8A%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86- %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF- %D9%87%D8%B2%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4/a-41036720 , Accessed 25 May 2020

DW English 2018, Yazidis of Sinjar: Aftermath of a genocide, Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYfDpfE-bs4 , Accessed 4 April 2020.

(France24)

France 24 English, 2015, Former Islamic state group sex slave Jinan narrates her dreadful story on France 24, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ss4COzQr4w&ab_channel=FRANCE24English Accessed 2 October 2020.

France 24 English, 2016, Yazidi former sex slave recalls IS group hell in Iraq, Available at: https://www.france24.com/en/20160217-sex-slave-islamic-state-group-iraq-yazidi-nadia- murad-terrorism Accessed 3 October 2020.

France 24 English, April, 2016, Escaped Yazidi sex slave o IS group, Available at: https://m.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English/videos/10154217030519434/ Accessed 5 October 2020.

France 24 English 2017, Former Islamic state group sex speaks out: every day we were humiliated and raped, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-TjM6e32dA&ab_channel=FRANCE24English Accessed 6 October 2020.

France 24 English, 2020, From Iraq's Mount Sinjar to eastern France: The price of exile for Yazidi women, Available at: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20200717-from-iraq-s-mont-sinjar-to- eastern-france-the-price-of-exile-for-yazidi-women Accessed 1 September 2020.

(The Guardian)

Agence Francepresse, 2015, Isis slave markets sell girls for 'as little as a pack of cigarettes', UN envoy says, The Guardian, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/09/isis-slave-markets-sell-girls-for-as-little-as-a- pack-of-cigarettes-un-envoy-says Accessed 1 November 2020.

Chulov, M, 2020, ‘After ISIS Yazidi women forced to leave their children behind’, The Guardian, Available at:

41 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/16/after-isis-yazidi-women-forced-to-leave-their- children-behind Accesed 3 November 2020.

Fraser, G 2016, ‘Even after escaping Isis the suffering of the Yazidis persists’, The Guardian, Available at:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/mar/17/even-after-escaping-isis-the- suffering-of-the-yazidis-persists , Accessed: 1 October 2020.

Graham Harrison, E, 2015,’ You will stay here until you die: one women’s rescue from ISIS’, The Guardian, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/26/arezu-yazidi-woman-rescued-isis-neighbours- raqqa Accessed 5 November 2020.

Graham-Harrison, E 2017, ‘I was sold seven times: the Yazidi women welcomed back into the faith’, The Guardian, Available at https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/01/i-was- sold-seven-times-yazidi-women-welcomed-back-into-the-faith , Accessed 2 April 2020.

McKernan, B 2019, 'We are now free': Yazidis fleeing Isis start over in female-only commune’, The Guardian, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/25/yazidis-isis-female-only-commune-jinwar-syria Accessed 2 November 2020. Moroz, S, 2015,’ The women taking on Isis: on the ground with Iraq's female fighters’, The Guradian, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/11/women-taking-on-isis-iraq-yazidi-female- fighters Accessed 2 November 2020.

Otten C 2017, ‘The slave of ISIS, The long walk of Yazidi women’, The Guardian, Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/25/slaves-of-isis-the-long-walk-of-the-yazidi-women, Accessed 19 April 2020.

Vin, R, 2015, ‘Dispatches – Escape from Isis review: a story of appalling brutality, and a glimmer of hope’, The Guardian, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jul/16/escape-from-isis-dispatches-women- abducted-abused Accessed 6 November 2020.

Arab Media (ALAan TV) :Available at ,اغتصبني امام زوجته ,AlAan Tv, 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvbMwACEXS0&has_verified=1&ab_channel=AlAanT V%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%81%D8%B2%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A2% D9%86 Accessed 16 October 2020

:Available at ,طفلة يزيدية باعها داعش اكثر من عشر مرات ,AlAan Tv, 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8m5nzvdjsI&ab_channel=AlAanTV%D8%AA%D9%84% D9%81%D8%B2%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A2%D9%86 Accessed 16 October 2020

-=Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v ,قصة ايزيدية ناجية من داعش ,AlAan TV 2020 K93im8uXYI , Accessed 25 may 2020

(Annahar Newspaper)

Available at https://www.annahar.com/article/602424- ,قصص مخيفة من سبايا داعش ,Annahar 2017 %D9%82%D8%B5%D8%B5-%D9%85%D8%AE%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86- %D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7- %D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4%D9%83%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AA- %D9%88%D8%B6%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%AA- %D9%88%D8%A7%D8%BA%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A8%D8%AA-%D9%85%D9%86-11- %D8%A3%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7 , Accessed 25 May 2020 (Al Arabia)

:Available at ,تجربة امراة ايزيدية عاشت 21 يوما اسيرة داعش ,Al Arabia, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjzwoOvbJRc&ab_channel=AlArabiya%D8%A7%D9%8 4%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9 Accessed 15 October 2020

Available at ,ماذا يفعل داعش بالفتيات غير الجميالت, صناعة الموت, ,Al Arabia 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMLS7pGDTGU, Accessed 9 May 2020. :Available at ,اشواق االيزيدية ,Al Arabia, 12, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkB89kFCqic&ab_channel=AlArabiya%D8%A7%D9%84 %D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9 Accssed 15 October 2020 :Available at ,ايزيدية تعود لزيارة موقع احتجازها لدى داعش و تروي تفاصيل محنتها ,Al Arabia, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8fE2LrQS3w&ab_channel=AlArabiya%D8%A7%D9%84 %D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9 Accessed 15 October 2020

Al Arabia, Available at ,النساء ال ر زييديات و أس ريات داعش ,Kharsa, R 2015 https://www.alarabiya.net/ar/politics/2015/11/22/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D 8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA- %D9%88%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4 , Accessed 1 Jun 2020.

(AL Jazeera) :Available at ,منظمات تطالب بمزيد من الدعم للنساء االيزيديات ,Al Jazeera net, 2015 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/reportsandinterviews/2015/2/28/%D9%85%D9%86%D8% B8%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8- %D8%A8%D9%85%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D9%85%D9%86-

%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85- %D9%84%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A1 Accessed 2 October 2020.

:Available at ,االيزيديات الناجيات من داعش ينخرطن في الحياة االجتماعية ,Al Jazeera, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ILl2HckL6Q&ab_channel=AlJazeeraChannel%D9%82 %D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A9%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9 Accessed 2 October 2020

:Al Jazeera net, Accessed at ,شابة ايزيدية من سوق سبايا داعش الى رسامة معروفة‘ ,Alrabie, Khaled, 2019 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/women/2019/11/15/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81 %D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9- %D8%A5%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86- %D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%8A%D9%85 Accessed 1 October 2020. :Al Jazeera, Available at ,بيع النساء بالواتس اب’ ,Kokain, J 2018 https://www.aljazeera.net/blogs/2018/9/27/%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B9- %D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A1- %D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A8- %D9%87%D9%83%D8%B0%D8%A7- %D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86 Acsessed 1 October 2020

(Sky news arabia)

:Available at ,أسر ايزيدية تروي قصص النجاة ,Sky news arabia, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyLaqM_hiik&ab_channel=%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A7 %D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9 Accessed 5 September 2020. :Available at ,االيزيديات معاناة واضطرابات نفسية ,Sky news arabia, 12,2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5B9e6R5rE&ab_channel=%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A 7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9 Accessed 1 September 2020. :Available at ,داعش وااليزيديات,حكايات ترويع و اغتصاب و استرقاق ,Sky news arabia, 03, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIMgaMj0LDs&ab_channel=%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A7 %D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9 Accessed 2 September 2020. :Available at ,حلقة خاصة عن الالجئين االيزيديين ,Sky news arabia, 04,2016

44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apf7fgybHlg&ab_channel=%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A7 %D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9 Accessed 3 September 2020.