logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2023
27m 18s

What's happened to Iraq's Yazidis?

Bbc World Service
About this episode

In 2014, militants of the Islamic State group set out to destroy the ancient, minority Yazidi community of northern Iraq. Thousands were murdered, thousands of Yazidi women and children were enslaved and brutalised. Since the defeat of IS in 2017, the traumatized community has tried to recover. And yet, as Rachel Wright reports, more than 100,000 Yazidis remain stuck in camps, unable to return to their homes.

Photo: Bahar, a Yazidi survivor, holds a picture of her missing husband and son. She and her family were captured by Islamic State in 2014. (BBC)

Presenter: Rachel Wright Producer: Alex Last Sound Mix: Neva Missirian Production Coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross Series Editor: Penny Murphy

Up next
Yesterday
Bonus. World of Secrets: The Killing Call
Sidhu Moose Wala explodes onto the Canadian music scene. His sound is a fusion of two worlds - hip-hop with the poetic language of rural Punjab, where he is from. After years of struggle he is making it. But with the spotlight comes a dark side. As his fame grows, so do the threa ... Show More
35m 54s
Jul 8
Re-homing France’s immigrant workers
France’s last foyers – housing for immigrant workers – are set for demolition. But some current residents are worried about what they’ll lose. Hundreds of “foyers” - housing units especially for immigrant workers – were built after World War II. The economy was booming and France ... Show More
27m 11s
Jul 7
Max Kidruk: Imagining the future in a science fiction trilogy
How do you imagine the future if you are a science fiction writer living in the present with your country at war? That is the challenge and dilemma for best selling author Max Kidruk. As he nears completion of Collapse, the second volume of a science fiction trilogy The New Dark ... Show More
26m 20s
Recommended Episodes
May 2021
Women of the Arab Spring
A decade after the uprisings that changed the political landscape of many countries in North Africa and the Middle East, Kim Chakanetsa looks at what impact the Arab uprisings had on the lives of women in Egypt and Syria. Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-American author and commentat ... Show More
27m 26s
Feb 2021
Nadiya Hussain
Nadiya Hussain MBE rose to fame after winning The Great British Bake Off back in 2015. She talks to Rachel and Alice about the way her life has changed since then and how the abuse that she faced as a child inspired her to be a force for change. Get The Times free for a month: th ... Show More
49m 7s
Nov 2020
Young and widowed
Who do you picture when you hear the word ‘widow’? The stereotype is probably an elderly woman. But what if your spouse dies unexpectedly young? Two women share their experiences of grief, stigma, and finding the strength to live their lives to the full. Roseline Orwa is a Kenyan ... Show More
27m 19s
Mar 2023
The Iraq War – 20 years on
It’s twenty years since the US and UK invaded Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Kirsty Wark discusses the lead up to the war, the impact on the lives of Iraqis and the legacy. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad left his job in Baghdad and became a journalist during the Iraq War in 2003. He witnes ... Show More
42m 15s
Jan 2022
Series 1: 12. Those we leave behind
In Northern Iraq, Josh finds out how two people you’ve been asking about are doing now.In 2014, the Islamic State group killed thousands of members of the Yazidi religious community and kidnapped and enslaved many, many more. Ayham and Saud were both taken from their families and ... Show More
25m 44s
Nov 2020
Zainab Saleh, "Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia" (Stanford UP, 2020)
With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraqis abroad, hoping to return one day to a better Iraq, became uncertain exiles. Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia (Stanford UP, 2020) tells the human story of this exile in the context of decades of U.S. imperial interests ... Show More
51m 26s
Mar 2021
Syria: hope and poetry
Two years of staying inside her own home in Homs, whilst 60 per cent of her neighbourhood was turned into rubble hasn't deterred architect Marwa al-Sabouni. She talks to Anne McElvoy about rebuilding and hope. Adélie Chevée researches the use of media by the Syrian opposition, an ... Show More
45m 12s
Feb 2024
Another Take: Did a Kenyan cult leader convince his followers to die?
Every Saturday, we revisit a story that’s in the news again. This originally aired on May 3, 2023. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.  In a shocking discovery on a ranch hidden in Kenya’s Shakahola Forest, more than 100 people – inclu ... Show More
23m 5s