ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi government has begun legal procedures to allocate land in Nineveh province free of charge to more than 2,000 Yazidi women who survived captivity under the Islamic State (ISIS), an official confirmed on Friday.
The initiative is being overseen by the Yazidi Women Survivors Affairs Directorate, which operates under Iraq’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
“The second phase of procedures to grant land, expected to benefit 2,000 Yazidi women, began on Thursday,” Hassan Khuwan, spokesperson for the ministry, told Rudaw.
The land allocations are based on the Yazidi Survivors Law No. 8, passed by the Iraqi parliament in 2021 to provide financial compensation and support to Yazidi women rescued from ISIS.
Originally drafted to assist only Yazidi women abducted by ISIS, the law ultimately expanded to include survivors from other minorities - Turkmen, Shabak, and Christians of both sexes - as well as Yazidi men who escaped mass killings.
The legislation also reserves two percent of public-sector jobs for ISIS survivors and grants them a monthly stipend and land plots.
Khuwan noted that during the first phase of land distribution, 262 plots were allocated to Yazidi women in Nineveh.
During ISIS’s assault on Shingal in 2014, militants abducted 6,417 Yazidi women and children, subjecting many to abuse and forced labor. A total of 3,593 survivors have since been rescued, accordingto Office of Rescuing Abducted Yazidis. Efforts continue to locate those still missing.
Many Yazidi survivors have been recovered from Syria’s al-Hol camp, which houses ISIS families and supporters. Others were found in areas previously controlled by Syrian rebels, Turkish-backed groups, or even in third countries.
Although ISIS lost its territorial control in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, the group remains a security threat.
The United Nations has formally recognized ISIS’s campaign against the Yazidis as genocide.
Khuwan added that a new office dedicated to Yazidi women's affairs will soon open in Nineveh to provide rehabilitation services and ongoing support to survivors.