Women’s survival through social media: A narrative analysis

ABSTRACT

While the popularity of social media is generally increasing, it is becoming particularly important for survivors of collective violence. The study presented here focuses on personal narratives of Êzîdî women who survived the violence perpetrated against them by the so-called “Islamic State.” In these, I identify both thematic and linguistic characteristics. My analysis incorporates concepts from discourse analysis and covers YouTube, Facebook, and other weblogs. As findings demonstrate, the personal narratives of the Êzîdî women can provide a deep understanding of the violence they have experienced and the support that the use of social media can provide. These insights in turn are intended to inform social media communication initiatives that reach out to and support traumatized individuals.

ABSTRACT IN PERSIAN

همانطور که افزایش وگسترش محبوبیت رسانه و یوتیوب نشان داده شده است، روایت شخصی به اشتراک گذاشته ازطریق رسانه های اجتماعی فضایی برای گسترش سریع ارتباطات در میان زنان ایزدی فراهم کرده است .

شناسایی ویژگی موضوعی و زبانی با ترکیب مفاهیم تحلیلی از تجزیه و تحلیل گفتمان در یوتیوب، فیس بوک، و وبلاگ های زنان ایزدی وسیله ای فراهم می کند برای درک بهتری از خشونتهایی که اونها تجربه می کنند، با استفاده از کانال های ارتباطی، این می تواندوسیله ای برای اطلاع رسانی به عنوان ابتکاری در رسانه های ارتباطات اجتماعی و با هدف استفاده از داستان های شخصی افرادی که از تروما رنج برده اند می باشد.

KEYWORDS:

• Middle East
• Iraq
• Êzîdî
• inhabited regions
• diaspora
• social media

KEYWORDS:

• مناطق مسکونی؛ دیاسپورا؛ رسانه­های اجتماعی؛ خاورمیانه؛ عراق؛ ایزدی

Notes on contributor

Behnaz HOSSEINI is currently a visiting research fellow at Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group (FRSG) at the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Oxford. She completed her doctoral research with a focus on Yārsān, a religious minority in Iran at the University of Vienna. Her research interests include religious minorities in Iran and Iraq, forced migration and integration. During her research she has been involved in multiple projects including “Trafficking and slavery under ISIS: Trauma and rehabilitation of Yezidi female survivors,” as well as “Analysis of forced migration and displacement of Iraqi religious minorities in Austria.”

Notes

1. Sinjar (Kurdish: Shingal) is a town in the Sinjar district near Mount Sinjar, Nineveh Province, North Iraq. The town is mainly inhabited by the Êzîdî.

2. “ISIL,” “Daish” or “ISIS” (henceforth IS) is an Islamic-extremist terrorist group controlling territory in Iraq and Syria, with limited territorial control in Libya and Nigeria. The group also operates and/or has affiliates in many other parts of the world, including Southeast Asia. On 29 June 2014, the group self-proclaimed the “worldwide caliphate” of the “Islamic State,” reigned by “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

3. Information derived from personal interviews with the Yazda organization in Dohuk, as well as a personal interview with the leader of Heartland Alliance (NCCI) in Dohuk (Kurdish-administrated region in Northeast Iraq).

4. See Murad (2016).

5. For more information, see Hosseini, 2016 and 2017.

6. The UN Security Council on Maintenance of International Peace and Security, for example, offered the stage to former ISIS sex slave, Nadia Murad (2015).

7. For more information, see the Facebook page I created on 11 November 2015 (Yazidi Times, 2015).

8. Nadia Murad, for example, a former IS sex slave, travels across the world, telling the story of her captivity to inform the public and to seek advocates for the struggle against the injustice being perpetrated against Êzîdî women.

9. See Lloyd-Roberts (2015).

10. See United Nations (2015).

11. See ‘I’d rather sacrifice my life’: Yazidi women taking revenge on ISIS (2015).

12. See Yazidi women speak of rape and beatings at the hands of ISIL (2015).

13. See Former Islamic state group sex slave Jinan narrates her dreadful story on FRANCE24 (2015).

14. See United Nations (2015).

15. See (note 14).

16. See, for example, Dabiq, which is an online magazine used by the Islamic State of Iraq for propaganda and recruitment. It was first published in July 2014. See McLaughlin (2014); cf. the original IS source—e.g. at http://jihadology.net/category/dabiq-magazine/issue 4.

17. See United Nations (2015).

18. See (note 17).

19. For more information, see Yazidi women speak of rape and beatings at the hands of ISIL (2015).

20. I had to omit several linguistic aspects, such as prosody or rhythm (Bauman, 1977, p. 9).