Yazidis reverse ruling on children fathered by ISIS fighters

Yazidi leaders ruled out accepting children born to Yazidi mothers and ISIS fathers into their community in Iraq, days after issuing a statement calling for their return.

ISIS killed thousands of Yazidis when they overran the religious minority’s heartland of Sinjar in northern Iraq in 2014.

The terrorist group enslaved Yazidi women, resulting in hundreds of them giving birth after being raped by their captors. The religious minority, which has faced generations of persecution, has guarded its membership tightly and rejects mixed marriages and children fathered by outsiders.

Women who escaped ISIS with children fathered by their captors have had to choose between abandoning their children or remaining in exile with them in displacement camps in Syria.

Last week’s decision was hailed by international organisations as clearing the way for hundreds of women to return home with their children. But the Yazidi Supreme Spiritual Council released a statement on Saturday that seemed to reverse its previous decision.

“We wanted to clarify to Yazidis that by referring to children of survivors, we never meant children born of rape, but we meant children born to Yazidi parents who were abducted by ISIS,” the council said.

That contradicted last Thursday’s ruling, which had given hope to mothers who feared they would have to abandon their children to be able to return home. That statement stipulated that all members of the faith must “accept all survivors and consider what they have been subjected to was out of their control”.

Several Yazidi political parties and many groups strongly opposed that move.

As a result, the council revoked the decision, according to Murad Ismael, executive director of Yazda, a global Yazidi organisation.

“The magnitude of ISIS crimes makes it extremely difficult for many people to accept raising children linked to ISIS.

“I still believe the best way is to retrieve these women and children and relocate them to a country that will provide them with safety,” Mr Ismael said on Twitter.

The reversal came after an outpouring of negative reactions to the initial decision among members of the Yazidi community, said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking.

“The reactions to the decision among Yazidis varied, with women in particular welcoming the decision. However, the online and offline discourse regarding the decision, dominated by men, was overwhelmingly negative,” Ms Tsurkov said.