THE BEEKEEPER OF SINJAR by Dunya Mikhail (trans from Arabic by author and Max Weiss)

The Yazidis are a Kurdish religious and ethnic minority from northern Iraq, as well as parts of Syria and Turkey. In 2014 ISIS was on the rampage, murdering, massacring, raping, pillaging any community that did not follow or convert to Islam the way it did. The Yazidis were in the firing line. You can do any Google search you want to find out the details of the genocide that occurred, no need to go into that here.

What this book does however is tell the stories of some of those who survived, those who escaped, those who helped and  were not going to let ISIS win. One of these was Abdullah Shreem, a beekeeper who sold his wild honey across the mountainous region of Sinjar where many Yazidis also lived. All this changed after ISIS had rampaged through the villages and communities of the Sinjar area. Most of the men were massacred, as were many elderly women and young children. Boys were taken away to military camps. Women and girls were kidnapped, trucked away and sold into slavery mostly in Syria. Abdullah was instrumental in rescuing dozens of women and girls from their fate, through the secret networks he established smuggling them back into Iraq or into refugee camps, including members of his own family. All of it done at huge risk to themselves.

The stories of the women are told either by Abdullah and transcribed by the author, or by the women themselves after they have been saved. This is not pretty reading, but like so much of what we read, whether it be fact or fiction, these are stories that must be told. What stands out for me is the kindness of strangers in helping these women as they attempted to escape the terrible existences they were living. What also stands out is how integral mobile phones were to effecting communication between Abdullah, his team and the women themselves.

The author herself is Iraqi, working as a journalist in Baghdad before she had to flee, making her way to the US where she is a university lecturer and a published poet. It is hardly surprising that her writing is exquisitely beautiful, her factual story telling interspersed with poetry, celebrating courage, family, hope, and loss. This is not a big book, but with so much brutality and humanity in it, it is plenty big enough.