Ethnic groups in Iraq

Yazidi women released from ISIS captivity meet with Lalish's top spiritual leader, Baba Chawish, before being baptized back into the faith. They didn't want to show their faces.

Yazidi society changes to try and rescue a generation of traumatized women

Conflict

As ISIS overran Iraq’s Yazidi heartland in August 2014, the group kidnapped thousands of women and girls, forcing them to convert to Islam. In years past, they would have been forever shunned from Yazidi society. But now, the community and its faith are creating new ways to reintegrate the women.

Dean Parker, a commercial housepainter and avid surfer from Florida, traveled to northern Iraq to fight with the Kurdish Peshmerga against ISIS.

Meet the surfing grandfather from Florida who helped the Kurds fight ISIS

Conflict
A Kurdish peshmerga fighter holds up a piece of clothing worn by an ISIS fighter on December 18, 2014. Kurdish peshmerga fighters have fought their way to Iraq's Sinjar mountain and freed hundreds of people trapped there by ISIS.

Kurdish fighters finally end the months-long siege of Mount Sinjar

Conflict
The view across the Kawar Gosk refugee camp for Syrian refugees in Northern Iraq.

Refugees who have escaped ISIS will soon have to battle winter weather

Conflict
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, walk in the Bajed Kadal refugee camp southwest of Dohuk province on August 15, 2014.

Yazidis in America are consumed by the fate of their relatives in Iraq

Belief
Will you support The World? 

The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?

A Kurdish resident holds a signs during a demonstration in support of peshmerga troops in front of the US consulate in Erbil, Iraq.

War, politics and humanitarian disasters give Iraq a perfect storm of crises

Conflict

Iraq has a new problem on its hands: A political showdown between current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his would-be successor. And the wrangling and potential violence are taking place against a backdrop of a massive humanitarian crisis and American intervention in northern Iraq.

A Kurdish resident holds a signs during a demonstration in support of peshmerga troops in front of the US consulate in Erbil, Iraq.

War, politics and humanitarian disasters give Iraq a perfect storm of crises

Conflict

Iraq has a new problem on its hands: A political showdown between current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his would-be successor. And the wrangling and potential violence are taking place against a backdrop of a massive humanitarian crisis and American intervention in northern Iraq.

Displaced demonstrators from the minority Yazidi sect gather during a protest against militants of ISIS in Irbil on August 4, 2014.

A trench is all that stands between ISIS and some Iraqi refugees

Conflict

ISIS militants have persecuted non-Islamic Iraqis as they’ve taken control of parts of northern Iraq. In some cases, particularly that of the Yazidi sect, escaping ISIS has meant fleeing on a moment’s notice and taking huge risks to stay alive.

Displaced people, who fled from the violence in the province of Nineveh, arrive at Sulaimaniya province August 8, 2014. The United States began to drop relief supplies to beleaguered Yazidi refugees fleeing Islamist militants in Iraq, but there was no imm

The situation in Iraq is ‘a humanitarian crisis that could turn into a genocide’

Conflict

Tens of thousands of Yazidis, an Iraqi minority group are stuck in the mountains of Northern Iraq where they fled from ISIS. They have little food, water and no way out.Tens of thousands of Yazidis, an Iraqi minority group are stuck in the mountains of Northern Iraq where they fled from ISIS. They have little food, water and no way out.

Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect flee violence in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Malik, ordered his air force for the first time to back Kurdish forces against Islamic State fighters after the Sunni milit

The battle against ISIS leads to odd alliances in Iraq

Conflict

Iraq’s prime minister is putting aside his differences with Kurdish forces in the north of Iraq as both groups fight militants from ISIS. The United States is also finding an unusual ally in Iran as both countries try to shore up the government in Baghdad.

Will you support The World? 

The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?