Mazin Saleem Shingali, the teenager who survived Islamic State IS militants' slavery in 2019, was attractive for the media then yet now he is relentlessly looking for a job to make his family living better but in vain. So far no Iraqi ID issued for him and as he is getting older, he missed the chance of returning to education.
Mazin was only 10 on August 3, 2014, when IS extremist Jihaddists stormed Mosul and controlled one third of Iraq in a short period of time. They took over the village of Bashuk in Khanasur compound and captured him with his father, mother and brother and later were separated.
He was freed with 10 other Ezidi teens in the last stronghold of ISIS in Baghouz, east of Syria on the border with Iraq, by Syria Democratic Forces SDF opposition group.
"Anything happened to Shingal?"
"Anything happened to Shingal?" This was the first question of Mazin for SDF fighters when he was liberated, attracting the attention of media among his 10 friends and later social media platforms.
Syria February 2019: First footage of Mazin Saleem, 14, after escaping IS captivity. Photo: Syria Democratic Forces SDF SDF.
On March 2, 2019 he was sent back to Duhok, Iraq. He was warmly welcomed. "My first question made me popular. I thought everything will be fine. I have received many promises and monthly payment but now no payment, no job, no ID card and dismissed from school," Mazin sighs.
"I thought everything will be fine. I have received many promises and monthly payment but now no payment, no job, no ID card and dismissed from school," Mazin sighs.
Ezidis are the oldest non-Abrahamic religions in Iraq. Their population in Iraq was at around 550,000 people, with the vast majority of them concentrated in northern Iraq, in and around Shingal district west of Nineveh province on the border with Syria. The Ezidis had been denounced as infidels by Al-Qadia and ISIS extremist groups in Iraq.
On August 3, 2014, ISIS invaded Shingal, abducted and enslaved 6417 Ezidis, mainly women and children, about 2700 missing up to day. According to the UN, thousands of Ezidis massacred in an atrocity mounted to genocide against the vulnerable peaceful minority.
ISIS managed to control one third of Iraqi territories retaken in 2015 up to 2017. Tens of mass graves and individual graves were found in Shingal.
Life in the Internally Displaced People IDP camp
Mazin lives with his mother and brother in Barsiv IDP camp in Zakho while his father was brought to an unknown destiny. Mazin could speak only Arabic when freed as mother tongue was prohibited by IS fighters. Now he speaks Kurdish fluently.
The main challenge for Mazin is joblessness and relatives give them a hand to survive. "I have no money enough to buy one kg of tomato. I look for a job and love to work so that at least I can make 5,000 IQD ($3.5) a day… my life is just sitting in the camp."
"I have no money enough to buy one kg of tomato. I look for a job and love to work so that at least I can make 5,000 IQD ($3.5) a day,"
When he made it home, Pro-KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Masoud Barani with stronghold in Erbil) mayor of Shingal, office based in Duhok, decided to give mazin 200,000 IQD a month in Shingal. "Later they reduced it to 100,000, then 75,000 and dropped to 50,000 and after few months no payment at all," he told KirkukNow.
KirkukNow has been waiting five days to get comments from Shingal mayor in Duhok Mahma Khalil whom promised to revert on march 14th yet no response up to day.
Tens of thousands of Ezidis live in tens of camps in Duhok Northern Province. They are reluctant to return home for absence of basic public services, destructions of houses and lack of stability and security due to the KDP-PKK conflict.
Shingal is administratively affiliated to the Nineveh province but among the fourteen disputed territories claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil, the status of which should be determined according to article 140 of Iraqi constitution alike Kirkuk oil rich city.
Mazin so far could not get an Iraqi civil status ID. "Officials promised me several times and this is a basic right."
Hussein Ali, uncle of Mazin, said they addressed Shingal mayor office many times and promised to sort out the issue and after waiting for long time they passed the dossier to Yazda NGO to take it to Mosul. "We are waiting to see if they give him ID or not."
March 2021: Grandmother of Mazin under the tent in Barsiv IDP camp in Zakho. Photo by KirkukNow.
Mazin Was extremely happy once freed from ISIS but daily challenges makes his life hard and tough. He likes to return to classroom but he is getting older making it hard to cope with classmates.
"I do not trust the officials any more. They needed me few days for the press and filming, they cannot recall who I am now," Mazin angrily said.
"I was the only kid who had Shingal in mind when we were rescued but now no one has any space for me in his mind."
"I was the only kid who had Shingal in mind when we were rescued but now no one has any space for me in his mind."
Mazin and his brother in Barsiv camp of Zakho district of Duhok. Photo by KirkukNow.
Story of survival
On the final days of the Caliphate in Syria, IS was planning to use Mazin and his friends in their desperate scrabble for survival in Baghouz, the group’s last stronghold. Mazin was forced to put on an explosive vest and was being prepared for a move that never came to his mind.
For Mazin and his fellow Ezidis that cold day of February 2019 was a day full of fear and anxiety. Mazin confusedly looked at the explosive vests wrapped around their small bodies to blow themselves up at SDF fighters who were fighting IS backed by coalition forces. They were mixed with women and people from Baghouz and dictated them to march toward SDF fronts.
Mazin, now almost 17, was trained by IS militants on how to use various weapons and suicide bombing since he was 10, after the group held him captive in Shingal’s Khanasur area. He spent almost five years under IS terror before he was finally taken with the militants to Syria.
The Ezidi community itself is devastated among the Baghdad-Erbil dispute and KDP_PKK conflict in the region.
"we help the children according to our capacity yet it is not a monthly regular payment," said Jawhar Ali Beg, deputy of Ezidi Prince (Mir) for media and communication. "We closely watch their problems, investigate it and visit them and call on related authorities to sort it out. It's time for the government to solve this issue because they offered big sacrifice."
"Pleasure of my life is that I am free now but we need our rights guaranteed and granted," Mazin demands.
