Jun 18 2015

Dominic Nahr: “The Plight of the Yazidis”

by Billy Kung

At the Triennial of Photography Hamburg which opens today, Swiss photojournalist Dominic Nahr, whom we have featured here on this blog seven months ago, will be participating in a group exhibit titled “Refugee Perspectives” alongside two other photographers: Ayman Oghanna, who is London-born of Iraqi descent and Italian Giulio Rimondi. The focus of the exhibit will be an examination of the plight of refugees in the war-torn country of Iraq.

Nahr was in Europe when news of the atrocities committed against the religious minority, Yazidis, by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) broke in August 2014. By luck he happened to be talking to someone from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency (UNHCR) and the next thing he knew he was on a plane to Erbil in northern Iraq. “It was like an omen,” he said over a recent phone conversation with me. Nahr spent the following six months on the ground primarily documenting the difficult lives of the Yazidis refugees under the protection of the UNHCR.

A member of the Kurdish religious minority, the Yazidis, of whom there are only an estimated 700,000 remaining in the world, are primarily spread over northern Iraq, where at least 200,000 Yazidis can be found with a majority of them living in the mountainous area of Sinjar. Other Yazidis populations reside in areas of southeast Turkey, northern Syria, parts of Iran and the Caucasus region. They are followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, with a mix of Islam (including Sufism), Christianity (including Gnosticism), Judaism, and other pre-Islamic Mesopotamian and Assyrian religious traditions. It remains a closed and secretive religion—members have to be born into the faith and cannot marry outside of it.

The Islamic State (IS) has publicly proclaimed their hatred for the Yazidis, who it deems as “devil worshippers,” and declared their intention to execute or enslave the members of this minority community. On August 3 2014, ISIS militants entered the city of Sinjar and massacred hundreds of Yazidis men. They were forced with the choice of either converting to Islam and pledge allegiance to ISIS or condemned to death, while women and children were abducted and later sold as slaves. More atrocities followed in subsequent months as ISIS attacked surrounding villages. By October 2014, the United Nations (UN) had confirmed 5000 men had been executed and 7000 women were being kept as sex slaves. Fearing for their lives, most of the surviving populations fled to the nearby mountains without food or water, and in the days that followed, many died of dehydration, exhaustion, and starvation.

According to reports by the UN, 80,000 refugees have since settled in Dohuk—a city with a population of just under 350,000 residents—and which is within a close distance of an hour and a half drive to both the Syrian and Turkish border. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis refugees have found shelter in unfinished skeletons of buildings and construction sites, public spaces and informal settlements. Some of these incomplete structures stood up to 13 stories high, with no internal or external walls or windows, water or electricity. Dust and grit fell from the unfinished ceilings; the smell of human waste lingered due to the lack of toilets. The larger encampments have a few metal water tanks brought in by local communities, but trucks did not come to supply fresh, clean water. Most people filled their tanks with well water drawn from the ground outside their encampments. Safe drinking water was only available as packaged bottled water donated by the people of Dohuk, while kind-hearted local families dropped off food. However, such goodwill did not suffice despite good intentions. Hard months lay ahead, as the inevitable cold of the long winter came to envelope the mountains, a chill that would last until May. Without more robust shelter and other aid, the Yazidi refugees feared the inevitable. It was here in Dohuk, as well as in the surrounding cities of Daben and Dakho that Nahr began his project and would return repeatedly over the winter until the end of his stay in April 2015.

In the work that will be exhibited at the Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Nahr has consciously decided to stray from the “straight” illustrative type of wire or newspaper photography. During our conversation, Nahr offered an explanation on the differences in his approach with this project compared to his other works in the past ten years: “I felt I had more time [with this project] and it wasn’t like I was in other assignments where I had to quickly get the shots, running around like crazy. Here, I could slow down more. I wasn’t sure if this was a month long assignment, or three months, or more…[however] I was prepared to stay.”

It is incredulous to think we are living in the 21st century when news of these barbaric acts is brought to light. It is perhaps even more offensive to hear Islamic State militants publicly stating their purportedly righteousness in carrying out these murderous and horrific acts. The resulting body of work—most of them filled with a substantial amount of black and dark shadow—was a direct emotional response to the scarcity of colors Nahr saw within his chosen compositional frame. Nahr used what little light there was available in the dark environment he was in to heighten the drama and pathos he was confronted with. He wanted to bring in a more personal reading into the frame of his compositions. “ I want these images to provoke more questions from the viewer, I want them to look longer and harder.” When asked why he chose color over black and white photography, Nahr remarks, “I respond emotionally with color, while black and white may offer a truer reading of the grittiness of the situation, but I don’t respond compositionally as well in black and white as I am with color.”

Yazidi IDP stand along the edge of an 11 story building that temporarily houses 359 people, of which 70 percent are under the age of 18 years old in Dohuk. Plastic sheets have been used to finish walls and close of the space to protect themselves from winter. There are an estimated 850,000 internally displaced people currently living in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, having fled violence and persecution in other parts of the country. Hundreds of thousands have sought shelter in unfinished buildings, public spaces and informal settlements.Many of the half-built structures dotted throughout the region’s northern Dohuk governorate contain dozens of displaced families. They face uncomfortable and often dangerous living conditions, including a lack of adequate sanitation and insulation from the elements. With winter fast approaching, many of those living in open-sided concrete shells have only plastic sheeting, foam mattresses and blankets to protect them from the freezing rain and bitter temperatures. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

A Yazidi IDP watches boys play from the edge of the third floor of an 11 story building that temporarily houses 359 people, of which 70 percent are under the age of 18 years old in Dohuk. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

A young Yazidi IDP lies on a thin mattress on the ground floor of an 11 story building that temporarily houses 359 people, of which 70 percent are under the age of 18 years old in Dohuk. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Young and old IDP’s can be seen inside and reflected on a glass door of an unfinished shopping mall used as a temporary shelter. There are an estimated 850,000 internally displaced people currently living in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, having fled violence and persecution in other parts of the country. Hundreds of thousands have sought shelter in unfinished buildings, public spaces and informal settlements. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Ismaeel (center), 19, is reunited with his parents who arrived exhausted and traumatised at the main Yazidi temple. “For three months I couldn’t get through to them. All news stopped. I thought they were dead. And then ‘like a dream’ he says ‘my father (Murad) called me on Saturday January 17, at around 11 am. I couldn’t believe it. He passed the phone to my mum. When I heard my mothers voice then I realized this was true. This is really my parents. They were alive.” A group of 196 internally displaced people from the Yazidi religious community were escorted by UNHCR from Kirkuk to Dohuk governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I) following their release by ISIS and have been taken to Laleih temple, in Shekhan a site with religious significance to people from the Yazidee religious community. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Unlit and unfinished staircases create an unsafe living environment with many families living up to eight to ten story’s high in Daben city, a housing estate with five buildings filled with more then 7000 Yazidi IDP’s in Zakho. Residents face multiple dangers including the cold, falling from floors or staircases or being hit by debris. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Goze Khudeda Qasim (45) from Sebaye village in Sinjar, holds her six month old son Raad Qawal Hussein inside her room on the six floor in an unfinished building in Daben city Zakho. Her daughter Ameena Qawal Hussein (6) fell from the sixth floor unfinished staircase in their building in Daben city, a housing estate with five buildings filled with more then 7000 Yazidi IDP’s in Zakho. She says: ‘At the beginning, we were living in the fourth floor. At that time, there were no rooms at that floor and it was open from all sides. They asked us to move to the upper floors until they make walls and then we can come back and stay in rooms. Then we came to here. After two days staying in this floor, my daughters fell from stairs. We took her to the hospital, but she resisted only one day then passed away. She was a good listener, smart and very intelligent. She was very smart and was listening to me every time. My kids cried a lot. They said we became displaced and now we lost our sister too. They are very touched by her death.’ Residents face multiple dangers including the cold, falling from floors or staircases or being hit by debris. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Young IDP’s watch other kids play football while Zakho, main border city to Turkey can be seen in the distance from the Zakho temporary camp, set up by the government, lies along the city’s edge on a hill. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Two young IDP’s play fight on top of a ridge overlooking Syria and Turkey near the Deraboun temporary camp along in Dohuk governorate in Iraq. Deraboun temporary camp which currently houses 302 families, was set up by the Turkish government inside Dohuk governorate and is situated on top of a mountain overlooking Syria and Turkey. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Duny, 7, takes a break helping her mother, Majida Saeed Salih, prepare their belongings to be moved from the Sinoor Primary School to a IDP camp near Zakho in Northern Iraq. There are an estimated 850,000 internally displaced people currently living in schools and unfinished structures across Northern Iraq. UNHCR is opening camps to provide more organised and better shelters for these IDP’s. Berseve-2, the newly UNHCR constructed camp which houses 1820 families with each tent having its own raised concrete floor and started receiving IDPs on the 16th of November 2014. According to the schedule, IDPs from all of the schools in Zakho region are prioritised, they will then continue with people seeking shelter in parks and other public spaces. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Asam, 17, says he’s still too scared to venture out into the garden after he stepped on a mine and mostly stays indoors when not at school. He fled Sinjar with his family in August, after weeks on the road they finally found shelter in Amadi, an idyllic town in Dohuk province perched atop a mountain. Just a few months later he ran down the side of a hill to retrieve a soccer ball, something he and his cousins had done dozens of times before, but this time Asam stepped on a land-mine. The blast filled his body with shrapnel and blew off his left foot. Now, Asam walks on crutches, but says he’s too scared to return to the garden where he used to play; he has nightmares that keep him awake at night and his family can’t afford proper medical care. Mines, relics of Saddam’s war against the Kurds in the 1980’s, are a well known hazard to residents in this part of Iraq, but displaced families from Sinjar in the country’s northwest were unaware of the seriousness of the danger. After the incident, an NGO set up barbed wire and land-mine warning signs on the edge of the garden, but children continue to play here as its the only outdoor space they have. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

During mid-day Young Yazidi children can be seen in the pitch dark and danerous stairwells inside an unfinished building. Many families have started to have skin infections, hair loss, blisters, rashes and headaches due to the unhygienic living conditions, where the IDP’s have been living in for several months. Daben City is a housing estate with five buildings once filled with more then 7000 Yazidi IDP’s in Zakho. Now a few hundred are left fearful when and where they will be moved to while still facing multiple dangers including the cold, falling from floors or staircases or being hit by debris. The rest of the IDP’s have started to be relocated since the middle of November. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Sadar, 7, leans against a wall covered in drawings, including a tank. His ten member family, who had escaped Sinjar, live in this one room inside an unfinished building in Zakho. When I asked who had created all of these drawings, almost everyone pointed at Sadar who smiled happily. He was suffering from skin infection due to bad hygiene in the building, but his parents made sure they would keep him as clean as possible – a hard task to do when it’s near freezing and not enough kerosene or wood to heat up the water.Daben City is a housing estate with five buildings once filled with more then 7000 Yazidi IDP’s in Zakho. Now a few hundred are left fearful when and where they will be moved to while still facing multiple dangers including the cold, falling from floors or staircases or being hit by debris. The rest of the IDP’s have started to be relocated since the middle of November. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Released Yazidi woman whose husband, sons and daughters are still being held captive by ISIS. They live with 25 other family members in an unfinished building in al-Qosh in Dohuk. A group of 196 internally displaced people from the Yazidi religious community were escorted by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from Kirkuk to Dohuk governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I) following their release by ISIS and have been taken to Laleih temple, in Shekhan a site with religious significance to people from the Yazidee religious community. Most of those released were elderly aged between 50-80 years. There were also seven disabled children. The group is believed to have been held captive by ISIS for over five months in Tal Afar. They were noticeably traumatized, frail and with visible skin infections. Courtesy the artist and UNHCR.

An elderly Yazidi IDP looks out of the window of a bus. A group of 196 internally displaced people from the Yazidi religious community wait to be escorted by UNHCR from Kirkuk to Dohuk governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I) following their release by ISIS. Most of those released were elderly aged between 50-80 years. There were also seven disabled children. The group is believed to have been held captive by ISIS for over five months in Tal Afar. They were noticeably traumatized, frail and with visible skin infections. A convoy of 11 buses was organised in coordination with local authorities in Erbil and Dohuk to transport the group to Lalesh Temple in the Shekhan area of Dohuk. Courtesy the artist and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.

Billy Kung is photo editor at ArtAsiaPacific.