The horrors they endured under the Islamic State (IS) group might be in the past for the people of Iraq, but the traumatic memories remain.
Now a research project is recording their witness testimonies for posterity.
Omar Mohammed, founder of the Mosul Eye project, rose to prominence during IS’ reign by bravely sharing news via Twitter from inside the city under their rule. Years later, he wants to make sure nothing is forgotten.
Photo: AFP
“When I was in Mosul recording everything myself, I felt the need to include all the people, to record our history in their own voice,” he said.
Bereaved mother Umm Mohammed, 55, is among those who have shared their memories of terror, suffering and loss with the non-governmental organization.
The Sunni extremists of IS came for her family one night in 2015 and took away her son, Ahmed, then a 27-year-old construction worker.
His brother, Mohammed, 10 years younger, then made a fateful choice — he decided to join the ranks of IS, with a daring plan to find and liberate Ahmed.
“I told him: ‘My son, don’t join them,’” recounted Umm Mohammed, her hair under a dark scarf. “He said: ‘It’s none of your business. I’m going to get my brother. I’ll go into the prisons.’”
The woman said, with sadness in her voice, that Mohammed left “and never came back.”
Neither did Ahmed.
Both are presumed to be among the many killed under the group’s self-declared “caliphate” that cut across swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Umm Mohammed said she suspects IS felt that Mohammed “was not one of them. They must have thought he was a spy.”
Speaking about those dark days years later for the Mosul Eye project has brought up a storm of emotions, but ultimately had a cathartic effect for Umm Mohammed.
“I had a volcano inside me,” she said. “When I spoke I felt joy, sadness, despair, relief.”
Iraq had already endured years of war and sectarian turmoil that followed the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein 20 years ago when IS launched its campaign of murder, rape, torture and enslavement.
Sweeping out from their base in Syria, the Sunni extremists in mid-2014 rampaged across northern Iraq’s ancient city of Mosul and Nineveh Province.
There were fears they would attack Baghdad before they were pushed back by a US-supported alliance that eventually deprived IS of its Iraqi territory in late 2017.
Grueling urban battles left much of Mosul in ruins and many of the survivors deeply traumatized.
Mosul Eye, with funding from the US Agency for International Development, has trained 10 students to conduct and film interviews, mostly in Mosul, but testimonies have also been collected from people hailing from elsewhere in Iraq.
The youngest of the 70 witnesses are barely 10 years old. Others are in their 80s. The oldest is 104.
The footage is to be kept at the group’s archives at Mosul University, and George Washington University in the US capital, for use by researchers and for future generations.
“We wanted to show the world how the people of Mosul overcame this experience,” Mosul Eye spokesman Mohannad Ammar said.
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