Salim Barakat is a Kurdish author, yet his works are highly regarded for their mastery of Arabic. To achieve his impossible goal of presenting a true picture of the dire condition of the Syrian Kurdish communities, sp...Salim Barakat is a Kurdish author, yet his works are highly regarded for their mastery of Arabic. To achieve his impossible goal of presenting a true picture of the dire condition of the Syrian Kurdish communities, specifically the Yazidis’ genocide in his novel The Captives of Sinjar, he resorts to Latin American magical realism and a convoluted writing style. Characters are not what they seem and every natural thing is a sentient being. The narrative traces the ghostly lives and deaths of five captive Yazidi girls and their five ISIS fighter-masters. The protagonist, Sarat, a fictional image of Barakat, is a painter, who lives and works by a secluded lakeside in Sweden. His work is influenced by the horrific imaginations of famous European artists. This paper accents the novel’s deep structure of collective memories of individuals and communities as addressed by the modern philosophers: Theodor Adorno, Maurice Blanchot, and Maurice Halbwachs.展开更多
Introduction<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;">...Introduction<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">In August 2014, the Yazidi community of Sinjar, in the Nineveh Governorate of Northern Iraq, was brutally targeted by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for annihilation through murder, torture, and the systematic and premeditated use of rape and sexual slavery of Yazidi women. In 2016, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that ISIS was committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Yazidis. Methods<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Using current international literature, which includes reviews, qualitative interviews of survivors, and reports from medical and humanitarian actors, this paper explores the short and potentially long-term physical and mental health consequences of the extreme physical and sexual violence and atrocities perpetrated against Yazidi women.<span style="font-family:""> <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Results<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Yazidi women survivors of kidnapping, sex slavery, and rape experienced significant levels of physical ailments, chronic pain, and mental health conditions. All women reported feelings of guilt, stress, insomnia, and severe flashbacks. The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ranged from 42% to 90%. Sixty-seven percent suffered from a somatoform disorder, 53% had depression, 39% experienced anxiety, and 28% suffered from dissociation.<span style="font-family:""> <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Conclusions<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Sexual violence against women is a common tool systematically employed during wars and genocide. In recent ISIS attacks, intentional perpetration of mass rapes of women and execution of men was a strategy to destroy an entire population. PTSD and depression are common after traumatic stress. For disaster responders and humanitarian workers, training and education to understand, try to prevent, and plan for interventions when gender-based violence and sexual exploitation occurs must become a mandatory part of emergency preparedness.展开更多
文摘Salim Barakat is a Kurdish author, yet his works are highly regarded for their mastery of Arabic. To achieve his impossible goal of presenting a true picture of the dire condition of the Syrian Kurdish communities, specifically the Yazidis’ genocide in his novel The Captives of Sinjar, he resorts to Latin American magical realism and a convoluted writing style. Characters are not what they seem and every natural thing is a sentient being. The narrative traces the ghostly lives and deaths of five captive Yazidi girls and their five ISIS fighter-masters. The protagonist, Sarat, a fictional image of Barakat, is a painter, who lives and works by a secluded lakeside in Sweden. His work is influenced by the horrific imaginations of famous European artists. This paper accents the novel’s deep structure of collective memories of individuals and communities as addressed by the modern philosophers: Theodor Adorno, Maurice Blanchot, and Maurice Halbwachs.
文摘Introduction<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">In August 2014, the Yazidi community of Sinjar, in the Nineveh Governorate of Northern Iraq, was brutally targeted by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for annihilation through murder, torture, and the systematic and premeditated use of rape and sexual slavery of Yazidi women. In 2016, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that ISIS was committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Yazidis. Methods<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Using current international literature, which includes reviews, qualitative interviews of survivors, and reports from medical and humanitarian actors, this paper explores the short and potentially long-term physical and mental health consequences of the extreme physical and sexual violence and atrocities perpetrated against Yazidi women.<span style="font-family:""> <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Results<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Yazidi women survivors of kidnapping, sex slavery, and rape experienced significant levels of physical ailments, chronic pain, and mental health conditions. All women reported feelings of guilt, stress, insomnia, and severe flashbacks. The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ranged from 42% to 90%. Sixty-seven percent suffered from a somatoform disorder, 53% had depression, 39% experienced anxiety, and 28% suffered from dissociation.<span style="font-family:""> <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Conclusions<span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">: <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Sexual violence against women is a common tool systematically employed during wars and genocide. In recent ISIS attacks, intentional perpetration of mass rapes of women and execution of men was a strategy to destroy an entire population. PTSD and depression are common after traumatic stress. For disaster responders and humanitarian workers, training and education to understand, try to prevent, and plan for interventions when gender-based violence and sexual exploitation occurs must become a mandatory part of emergency preparedness.
