A Time for Us? Yazidi women

It’s really hard to tell about the suffering of the Yazidi people, and we have experienced such a difficulty. From our experience, when we approach people in order to portray them and tell their stories, we use to smile to get over embarrassment, to reduce distances. And it works; where language and culture do not succeed, human touch does. Here it was different. Of course, we knew their story in broad terms, that Isis, with its tremendous black flag, had raided in 2014 in the plain of Nineveh and had persecuted Yazidi people, killing at least five thousand, forcing fifty thousand to escape, and forcing women to become sexual slaves. But when I met these little women and listened to their terrible stories, I were literally paralyzed. For long minutes I looked down, without meeting anyone’s eyes, and cried in silence with muffled sobs. There were no words of circumstances, no words of courtesy, no smiles. There was only a silent cry and a low gaze.