On August 3, 2014, Islamic State fighters carried out a lightning offensive in the Sinjar mountains in northwestern Iraq, a region that is home to the Yazidi community, a Kurdish minority dating back to ancient Persia. Men captured by ISIS forces were executed; the women were raped and sold as slaves. In May 2015, a brigade of female Yazidi fighters was formed. These young women now fight on the front, with the men, “because we must only ever rely on ourselves, and we must defend ourselves to regain our honor ».
The exhibition Yazidi Women, Their Bodies a Battlefield is presented in part of Visa pour l’image – Perpignan Festival from August 29th to September 13th 2015.
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