Facing the truth about the lasting scars of war
Until the First World War (1914-1918), most battle injuries were caused by small arms fire or sword cuts. Facial injuries were often of little concern to survivors who were deemed lucky enough to have escaped with their lives. Weapons used during the First World War like heavy artillery, machine guns and poison gas, created injuries of a severity and scal…
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Jordan hospital treats war casualties from across Middle East
Shahd Tahrawi was wounded in an Israeli strike on Gaza, Hossam Abd al-Rahman suffered burns in an explosion in Iraq and bombardment in Yemen has left Mohammed Zakaria in need of multiple surgeries. As Kamal Taha explains, they all met at the charitable Al-Mowasah hospital in the Jordanian capital Amman, which treats some of the many civilians wounded in co…
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Pope Francis 'was one of us'
For the Rev. Father Fadie Gorgies of the St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in Troy, Pope Francis leaves behind a legacy of care and compassion for those on the margins of society, as Nushrat Rahman explains for the Detroit Free Press . Gorgies, an assistant priest, said the Pope inspired him to become a chaplain at the Oakland County Jail. Pope Francis&#…
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What are you reading today?
Hussein Al-alak is the editor of Iraq Solidarity News (Al-Thawra). Hussein is also a regular guest on Radio Offbeat, on Manchester's ALLFM. I was delighted to visit the Wood Street Mission, with a special World Book Day contribution for their ‘Books Forever’ appeal . It’s incredible that here in England and according to the National Literacy Trust : “1…
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New documentary chronicles Iraq’s Christian history
Marking 10 years since ISIS swept into Mosul and the towns of the Nineveh Plain, EWTN News has released a documentary delving into the roots of Christianity in Iraq, its history dating back nearly 2,000 years, and how Iraqi Christians have survived despite attempts to erase their presence.
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An Iraqi family’s efforts to rebuild their home and their lives
Intisar, 40, and her 4 children had no choice but to flee after an airstrike completely destroyed their home in Anbar, Iraq. At the same time, her husband went missing during the attacks by the group known as ISIS in their city and was presumed dead. These events left her distraught and uncertain about her next steps. Intisar remembers the thoughts that sw…
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AMAR’s Yazidi Choir. Can you hear the people sing?
In 2019, Rana founded the AMAR Ashti Choir and is being supported by the AMAR Foundation, a British based charity. Several women in the choir were ISIS captives and others have lost family members. “This folk music, it’s also a kind of affiliation of our religion,” says Mamou Othman, who studies music as psychotherapy at the University of Dohuk. “There ar…
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ISIS member charged in German court
A high-ranking Islamic State (IS) member has been charged in Germany with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including aiding in the genocide of the Yazidi community, prosecutors announced Wednesday. As the Media Line reports, the suspect, identified as Ossama A., is a Syrian national accused of significant involvement in IS operations in Syria. Pros…
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New Iraq inquiry to examine Britain’s responses to Daesh war crimes
The UK’s Joint Committee on Human Rights has announced a new Iraq inquiry into accountability for Daesh crimes, following up on work done in the previous Parliament. Daesh, also known as Islamic State, ISIS or ISIL, grew to prominence in the early 2010s, taking advantage of instability in Syria and Iraq to control large parts of their territory. Daesh co…
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Yazidi woman reunites with family a decade after ISIS abduction
A Yazidi woman kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 reunited with her family in Shingal’s Kocho village on Sunday after being rescued from Syria’s northwestern Idlib province last month. S.K, the 30-year-old Yazidi woman was rescued from Idlib with the assistance of the Office of Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, an organization affiliated with the Kurdi…
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In Germany, couple accused of abusing Yazidi girls
The couple allegedly bought two children at an Iraqi market and kept them as slaves. The accused are alleged to have been members of the "Islamic State" group and were detained in Bavaria in April, as explained here by DW. Germany's federal prosecutor on Monday 30th December 2024 charged an Iraqi couple with enslavement, torture and war crime…
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Iraq pays salaries to over 2,000 Yazidi ISIS survivors
Over 2,000 Yazidi women who survived the Islamic State (ISIS) genocide a decade ago are receiving salaries from the Iraqi government under the Yazidi Survivors Law, enacted over three years ago, a federal official said on Sunday. “So far, 2,228 Yazidi girls and women receive salaries,” Sarab Ilias, head of the Yazidis affairs office at the Iraqi ministry o…
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Catholic schools in Lebanon welcome displaced students
The head of a Catholic school in Lebanon has said church-run schools in the conflict-torn country have welcomed displaced students despite their limited capacity to help. Fr Mouin Saba, president of the Apostles School in Lebanon’s Jounieh, said that about 75 percent of Catholic schools in Lebanon are open despite the ongoing war with Israel, Catholic New…
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The right to life: Lebanon’s expectant mothers fear for their unborn babies
Lubana Ismail had just fled her village in southern Lebanon with her husband and two children when she went into labour. She had swollen veins in her uterus and needed immediate medical supervision to give birth safely. They searched for a hospital in Beirut or Sidon that would admit her, but all were full of the dead and wounded. “No hospital accepted me.…
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What can the rescue of a Yazidi woman teach us?
A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq more than a decade ago has been freed from Gaza in an operation led by the US. The operation also involved Israel, Jordan and Iraq, according to officials and reported by The Guardian . The woman is a member of the Yazidi religious minority, which saw more than 5,000 members killed and thous…
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Planned changes to Iraq’s marriage laws cause outrage
Iraq’s personal status law goes back to 1959. It was approved in the wake of the overthrow of the British backed Iraqi monarchy in a military coup led by Gen. Abdul Karim Qasim in 1958. It established the minimum age for marriage at 18. It restricted polygamy and banned forced marriages. It has remained in effect for the past 58 years. Do you want to know …
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Iraq: A Broken Justice System
Iraq’s leadership used draconian measures against opposition politicians, detainees, demonstrators, and journalists, effectively squeezing the space for independent civil society and political freedoms in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2013 . The number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq increased in 2012, for the first time sinc…
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Blair to 're-engage' with politics
Since he left Downing Street almost five years ago, Tony Blair has been careful to avoid intervening in domestic controversies, preferring to concentrate on foreign affairs and his business interests. That could be about to change, amid signs that the former Prime Minister is turning his attention back to British politics. He has started meeting sm…
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Media freedom deteriorating
Violence against journalists and restrictions on media have worsened in the past year in Iraq, a local rights group said, in a country already thought to have among the least press freedoms in the world. The Journalism Freedoms Observatory (JFO), ahead of Thursday’s World Press Freedom Day, voiced concern over arbitrary arrests, curbs on movement an…
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Female Trafficking Soars in Iraq
Rania was 16 years old when officials raped her during Saddam Hussein’s 1991 crackdown in Iraq’s Shia south. "My bothers were sentenced to death, and the price to stop this was to offer my body," she says.Cast out for bringing ‘shame’ to her family, Rania ran away to Baghdad and soon fell into living and working in Baghdad’s red light district. …
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