Iraqi lawmaker asks U.S. for more help fighting ISIS

WASHINGTON— While accepting a human rights award at the U.S. Capitol today, the lone Yazidi member of Iraqi Parliament called on the United States and the world to do more to help her still-suffering people.

“This is our tragedy that continues until now,” Vian Dakhil said. “It didn’t end.”

Dakhil was in Washington to receive the Lantos Human Rights Prize for her work on behalf of Yazidis, a religious people group indigenous to northern Iraq. Her frantic plea for help more than two years ago on the Iraqi Parliament floor captured the world’s attention and led Islamic State (ISIS) to name her its “most wanted” woman.

“Mr. Speaker, we are being slaughtered under the banner, ‘There is no God but Allah,’” Dikhal said in her 2014 speech. “I speak here in the name of humanity. Save us! Save us!”

U.S. airstrikes and international aid helped deliver most of the Yazidis and others trapped on Mount Sinjar at the time, but Dakhil said more than 420,000 Yazidis still live in refugee camps. About 80 percent of their cities and villages are destroyed.

Dakhil said ISIS continues to enslave more than 3,900 Yazidi women and girls. Militants have raped girls as young as 9 and sold them for only a few dollars.

Last year, former Secretary of State John Kerry declared ongoing genocide against Yazidis and Christians in Iraq and Syria—only the second declaration of active genocide in U.S. history.

Dakhil, showing flashes of the same passion that made her famous, praised the United States for delivering Iraq from a dictatorial regime but called for more help to eradicate ISIS: “There is no people they did not target: Shia, Sunni, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis.”

Dakhil’s appearance came less than two weeks after the Trump administration issued an executive order temporarily suspending the U.S. refugee program and immigration from seven terrorist hotspots—including Iraq. Dakhil criticized the order as deeply misguided, saying it confuses victims and terrorists after Iraqis and Americans spilled their blood together fighting terrorism. “We were shocked with the United States president’s latest order,” she said. “Now, by this decision, we were equalized with the terrorists.”

Initially it appeared the executive order would block Dakhil from traveling to the United States to receive the award, but she credited stateside friends with helping her secure a waiver. (A federal judge subsequently issued an injunction to temporarily stop enforcement of the order.) She asked what would happen to those who have escaped ISIS but don’t have anyone to advocate for them.

“Those poor victims have no one to help them, and the United States is closing its doors in their faces,” Dakhil said. “Mr. President, Donald Trump, Iraq is not a terrorist, Iraqis are not terrorists. We are friends and allies, and we are looking forward to having an exceptional relationship with the United States and with all countries.”

Diplomats, former Lantos Prize winners, and a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., attended the event honoring Dakhil. David Saperstein, former ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, praised her for defending fundamental rights that Americans hold dear.

“Your words that day were incontrovertible evidence that one voice can make a difference,” Saperstein said, drawing a parallel with the Biblical story of Esther. “When you stood up that day to defend the Yazidis of Iraq, a proud, ancient people, you stood as a modern Queen Esther.”