Heaven is under the feet of the mothers
At least 16 graves were recently found where Islamic State (ISIS) militants had buried Yezidi civilians they killed during their takeover of the Yezidi town of Shingal (Sinjar) last year. The graves were found after the recapture of Shingal and its surrounding areas by the Kurds last month.
When you visit the town you are struck at first sight by the enormous destruction that is the result of a year of intensive street fighting and bombardments. Then the fact that in all this rubble the tunnels that the ISIS militants had dug to be able to move unseen, are still intact. No bombs have been able to damage them. They are so well constructed that they became a major part of the heritage of ISIS in Shingal.
But the main ISIS legacy cannot be seen with the eye. It is under the ground, where Yezidis lay buried with their family members still searching for them. This is yet another painful testament to the thinking many local Muslims have adopted under the influence of ISIS.
One of the graves contains mainly elderly women. Women that were almost certainly taken from the village of Kocho after they had been separated from the men, together with their daughters and other young women and children.
The men were killed there and buried where they fell. We know this from some survivors for the village is still in ISIS hands.
After the women were taken to Shingal another selection took place. Here young women and girls that could play a role as sex slaves were separated from their mothers, grandmothers and aunts, or in general, from older women who were not considered suitable for that role. For ISIS, menopause disqualified women for sex.
As a result of this painful process the women were spared the terrible ordeal of being sold and resold and abused again and again. But what makes it even more painful is that many of them were mothers and were killed in a culture where mothers have a very special status.
Culturally, the mother’s status is clear from songs and poems, and also religiously it is said that “heaven is under the feet of the mothers’. Prophet Mohammed is said to have repeatedly chosen for mothers over fathers as more important, when asked to do so.
Many ISIS fighters hail from the local Arab culture and must have been brought up with this sense of respect for mothers. In their Quranic lessons this must have been communicated to them as well. Yet when ISIS told them to kill the elderly Yezidi women, they obeyed.
ISIS has indoctrinated its followers that Yezidis are infidels and even worshippers of the devil, and are to be converted to Islam or killed. The villagers of Kocho had been given this choice, after they were herded into the local school, but they had refused.
For the ISIS fighters and followers that was enough reason to simply kill them, including the older women. For them, the fact that the women were no Muslims and would not convert, had overridden their culturally inherited respect for mothers.
The concept of sin taught to them by their parents and elders has been overturned completely. Their given task now is to kill and be killed for the ‘good cause’, and thus end up in paradise. It is clear that young men leave behind most of their cultural baggage when they join ISIS, to live in a caliphate based on life in the 6th century.
At the same time, ISIS has recruited many in the West by promising that they can open the doors to heaven for their mothers too, by dying in the battle. That is at least what these sons tell their mothers, who desperately try to persuade them to return home. “Mom, I did it so we can be joined in paradise.”
Even if the mother does not follow him into his new faith, which should make her an infidel, the son will still respect her.
But this respect for mothers is withdrawn in an instant whenever the ISIS leaders tell their followers to do so. In the case of the Yezidi mothers, they were killed for the simple reason that ISIS had no use for them.
It is no use talking about international and military laws because ISIS does not accept anything other than the Sharia law. Nor is talking about logic as there is none.
Heaven is under the feet of the mothers. Isn’t this the same place that ISIS is promising its followers after death? So shouldn’t they worry about the eternal wrath of their victims who according to the same belief will be there already?
When you visit the town you are struck at first sight by the enormous destruction that is the result of a year of intensive street fighting and bombardments. Then the fact that in all this rubble the tunnels that the ISIS militants had dug to be able to move unseen, are still intact. No bombs have been able to damage them. They are so well constructed that they became a major part of the heritage of ISIS in Shingal.
But the main ISIS legacy cannot be seen with the eye. It is under the ground, where Yezidis lay buried with their family members still searching for them. This is yet another painful testament to the thinking many local Muslims have adopted under the influence of ISIS.
One of the graves contains mainly elderly women. Women that were almost certainly taken from the village of Kocho after they had been separated from the men, together with their daughters and other young women and children.
The men were killed there and buried where they fell. We know this from some survivors for the village is still in ISIS hands.
After the women were taken to Shingal another selection took place. Here young women and girls that could play a role as sex slaves were separated from their mothers, grandmothers and aunts, or in general, from older women who were not considered suitable for that role. For ISIS, menopause disqualified women for sex.
As a result of this painful process the women were spared the terrible ordeal of being sold and resold and abused again and again. But what makes it even more painful is that many of them were mothers and were killed in a culture where mothers have a very special status.
Culturally, the mother’s status is clear from songs and poems, and also religiously it is said that “heaven is under the feet of the mothers’. Prophet Mohammed is said to have repeatedly chosen for mothers over fathers as more important, when asked to do so.
Many ISIS fighters hail from the local Arab culture and must have been brought up with this sense of respect for mothers. In their Quranic lessons this must have been communicated to them as well. Yet when ISIS told them to kill the elderly Yezidi women, they obeyed.
ISIS has indoctrinated its followers that Yezidis are infidels and even worshippers of the devil, and are to be converted to Islam or killed. The villagers of Kocho had been given this choice, after they were herded into the local school, but they had refused.
For the ISIS fighters and followers that was enough reason to simply kill them, including the older women. For them, the fact that the women were no Muslims and would not convert, had overridden their culturally inherited respect for mothers.
The concept of sin taught to them by their parents and elders has been overturned completely. Their given task now is to kill and be killed for the ‘good cause’, and thus end up in paradise. It is clear that young men leave behind most of their cultural baggage when they join ISIS, to live in a caliphate based on life in the 6th century.
At the same time, ISIS has recruited many in the West by promising that they can open the doors to heaven for their mothers too, by dying in the battle. That is at least what these sons tell their mothers, who desperately try to persuade them to return home. “Mom, I did it so we can be joined in paradise.”
Even if the mother does not follow him into his new faith, which should make her an infidel, the son will still respect her.
But this respect for mothers is withdrawn in an instant whenever the ISIS leaders tell their followers to do so. In the case of the Yezidi mothers, they were killed for the simple reason that ISIS had no use for them.
It is no use talking about international and military laws because ISIS does not accept anything other than the Sharia law. Nor is talking about logic as there is none.
Heaven is under the feet of the mothers. Isn’t this the same place that ISIS is promising its followers after death? So shouldn’t they worry about the eternal wrath of their victims who according to the same belief will be there already?
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.