** photo source. Nadia Murad, the author, is on the far left.
I’m currently listening to Last Girl.
The true story of a Yazidi girl forced to watch the massacre of her village and taken captive by ISIS.
Her story. Her problems. Her hope. Make my problems seem small. Make my life seem small in some ways.
Sometimes, stories like this. Stories that are happening right now, make me feel guilty for my freedom, for the comforts that I have, for being stir crazy after having sick kids for two weeks.
And yet, the pain in Iraq is caused by hate, pride, fear, and apathy for those that are other.
Sunnis persecute the Shi’a.
The Shi’a come to power and persecute the Sunnis.
No one likes the Kurds or the Yazidis.
The Kurds, charged with protection, retreat in the night when Isis advances on the Yazidis. To stay would have been suicide, and yet, I believe they would have stayed if it had been their own families they were protecting, but it wasn’t.
Sunni neighbors and “friends” blocked the Yazidis’ escape at worst, and at best did nothing.
But,
Other Kurds opened their borders to the fleeing Yazidis.
A Sunni man risked his life to smuggle the Yazidi girl out of the country.
There is hope.
And by noticing the lessons in my life, the room for improvement, the opportunities to love those that are other, exactly as they are I can create small ripples that carry the possibility of waves.
In our global world of interconnectedness, it doesn’t take many waves to create a tsunami.
Nadia has created an organization to advocate for victims of sexual violence and rebuild communities here.