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Now a teenager and survivor of the ISIS prisons after the Yazidi genocide, Rashid dreams of a brighter future in a country that is struggling to rebuild. But when hatred against Yazidi minority resurfaces, he starts wondering whether to leave or stay.
Help us support Rashid and his family in their search for their little sister Raishin, still in ISIS captivity .
Rashid, the boy from Sinjar
SYNOPSIS
After surviving Isis prisons as a child, Rashid has been reunited with his family in Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq. Now a teenager, this young Yazidi dreams of a brighter future in a country that is struggling to rebuild. But peace is fragile in Sinjar, and hatred against the Yazidi minority is resurfacing. On the threshold of adulthood, Rashid is reinventing himself amid the changes disrupting his daily life and wondering whether to leave or stay.
WHY DONATE ?
« Everybody came back, only Raishin is still missing », says Rashid in the beginning of the film. His entire family was abducted by IS fighters, but they managed to survive and came back to Sinjar, their home town. His little sister Raishin was forcibly taken from her mother’s arms, when she was only three years old at the time. In the film, the family constantly mentions her, they never stopped looking for her. There are many Yazidi families like Rashid’s, who continue to search for their their loved ones. Unfortunately, there is often a price to pay, as many smuggles act like matchmakers between IS members who abducted their children and the Yazidi families, who hope for their return. Nejad, Rashid’s (and Raishin’s) mother, avoids their network. She is connected to different Yazidi organisations in Syria and in Iraq, who work hand in hand with Syrian fighters and activists. They operate in the region of Deir Ez Zor and have already spotted Raishin’s whereabouts, but IS family who holds her goes very often into hide, so they couldn’t proceed with their action.
In spite of having suffered so much, Nejad, Rashid and the whole family cannot give up hope to find Raishin. The truth is that, as long as she’s still in captivity, the family cannot really heal from past wounds.
As Nejad explains, Yazidi children were converted to Islam and many times, they don’t dare to say that they’re Yazidis. Smugglers called her once and she could hear her daughter’s voice saying hello to her parents and to her siblings, that’s why Nejad believes that her daughter would dare to say who she is, if she sees her mother in front of her.
As Nejad moved to Australia so that her four children could be safe, it became harder for her to keep looking for her daughter. But she is still determined to continue her fight and your donations would help her travel more often to Iraqi-Syrian border, where she could visit different child centers and camps where the exchange of children is going on.
Raishin was abducted at the age of 3, she’s just had her birthday and is now 12 years old.
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