The silence/voice synergy of Yazidi Women’s agency during and after ISIS

In August 2014 Yazidi women were subjected to brutal treatment by the so-called Islamic State. Many Yazidi men were murdered, and over 5,000 women and girls were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. Following the group’s campaign, gender-based violence against women and its consequences received considerable media and scholarly attention. This chapter uses the concept of liminality to explore Yazidi women’s experiences of gender-based violence. It reveals how these women used the liminal spaces of voice/silence to exercise their agency, both by remaining silent to survive the group and by speaking out to overcome the issues after the captivity when living in internally displaced peoples (IDPs) camps. Triangulating a narrative analysis of 31 semi-structured interviews conducted with Yazidi women in the camps, with a content analysis of 41 American and British broadsheet news articles, this chapter explores how the transitional phases of change in social conditions between captivity and the camps informed women’s responses to violence in different contexts. In doing so ,it demonstrates how the concepts of silence and voice co-exist: Yazidi women are neither victims without voice, nor survivors with a voice. Rather, they exist in gendered hierarchical environments that provide both new opportunities and constraints for these women.