It is scheduled to distribute 262 plots of land to survivors of the atrocities by the extremist militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS captivity in Sinjar, Nineveh, each plot measuring 250 square meters, distributed by lottery system, as part of the steps to implement the Ezidi Women Survivors Law.
The law was approved by the Iraqi Parliament on March 1, 2021, and includes granting groups covered by the provisions of this law a residential plot of land or a housing unit for free, in addition to opening a number of centers for providing psychological support to female survivors and providing educational opportunities for survivors who were forced to quit school due to the war against ISIS which took thousands as hostages.
According to the Ezidi Survivors Law, a monthly salary of twice the lowest pension for surviving women and girls will be paid - the lowest pension in Iraq is 500,000 Iraqi dinars IQD - meaning that each survivor will receive a monthly salary of one million IQD (USD650).
The law includes not only Ezidis, but all survivors of Turkmens, Christians and Shabak communities, who were enslaved by the ISIS – Daesh - and liberated from captivity or survived the mass killing campaigns. It also includes all children under the age of eighteen of both sexes.
For the purpose distribution of the lands, the Deputy Governor of Nineveh for Administrative Affairs met on October 17 with the Director of the Department of Survivors of ISIS Captivity.
Rifaat Samo, Deputy Governor of Nineveh, told (KirkukNow) the municipality of Shingal has identified 250 plots of land, and the municipality of Tal Afar has identified 12 plots. The transactions have been completed, and waiting for the Directorate of Survivors of ISIS Captivity Affairs to send the names of those included in order to determine the day of distribution of the plots of land.
Iraqi House of Representatives session on March 1st, 2021 about Ezidi survivors' law. Media of the Iraqi House of Representatives media.
So far, the procedures for 500 survivors to receive plots of land have been completed, 40 of whom are from the Turkmen, Christian and Shabak components, while the rest are from the Yazidi component, Samo explained.
Of the total number of 262 plots of land, 250 plots were allocated to Ezidi women and 12 plots to Turkmens.
Last February, over 400 Ezidi survivors of ISIS have been approved to receive a monthly salary from the Iraqi federal government as part of the first practical step of the Ezidi Survivors Law, as part of material reparation for the enslaved women.
Paying salaries represents the first practical step to implement the Yazidi Survivors Law No. 8 of 2021, as the surviving women and girls will benefit directly from it.
The Ezidi Women Survivors' Law referred to the Iraqi parliament by the former Iraqi President Barham Salih in March 2019, provides support and rehabilitation for the community, particularly the female members who escaped Islamic State abduction and slavery.
The law provides financial compensation for female and male survivors while it has not addressed other more sensitive issues, such as dealing with children who were the results of IS sexual abuse.
The law has outlined an office to be managed by an Ezidi to undertake the mission of receiving documents from the victims for the purpose of their compensation and providing a prosperous life.
A meeting by the Iraqi Turkmen Front ITF officials with a number of Turkmen survivors, Kirkuk, August 17, 2019. Media of Turkmen MP Arshad Al-Salihi
Marwan Jadaan, a representative of the victims of Kocho village - one of the villages in Sinjar whose residents were subjected to mass murder during ISIS control - told KirkukNow, “The decision to distribute plots of land is a positive step and we hope that all the survivors will benefit from it.”
“My wife is among the survivors of the grip of ISIS has been receiving the salary allocated to survivors for three months, and all that remains is for it to receive the plot of land,” he added.
ISIS militants took control of Sinjar district in August 2014, and the organization kidnapped 6,417 Ezidis, including 3,548 girls and women. The fate of 3,562 people is still unknown, including 1,207 girls and women, in addition to 2,016 children of both sexes. The fate of 1,693 abductees remains unknown, 1,262 of whom are female, according to the latest statistics of the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
In addition to the kidnapped Yazidis, statistics by local activists and civil society organizations in Tal Afar, obtained earlier by the KirkukNow indicate that out of a total of 1,300 kidnapped Turkmens, including hundreds of women and children, only 84 of them were liberated, 23 of whom were female.
Statistics from the Directorate of Christian Affairs in the Ministry of Endowments of the Kurdistan Regional Government, obtained by Kirkuk Now, also showed that 62 Christians went missing when ISIS controlled Mosul and large swathes of Iraq, 18 of whom were female.
