Kheder Daham is a Yazidi Iraqi artist born in the village of Bara at the foot of Mount Sinjar. When Kheder was still very young he and his family crossed the nearby border into Syria, and he returned to live in his home country only in 2013. Like many Yazidis he has a large family, with twelve brothers and three sisters. On that fateful day in August 2014 when ISIS launched its targeted offensive on Sinjar and the Yazidi people, it was for his family that Kheder left the relative safety of the Duhok region, where he was living because of fears of just such an attack. He rescued his brother close to Sinjar city and took him back north beyond the Tigris river and towards Duhok Governorate. Kheder explains that the rest of his family who lived in Sinjar were fortunate that they had enough time to flee by car and escape the region, since many other inhabitants were forced at short notice to flee up the mountain, often on foot.

After some time spent living in an IDP camp, Kheder was granted a French visa and transferred to France, where he now lives and produces his art. He explains that it was in Syria that he gained the sensibilities to be an artist: “In Syria we lived in a beautiful area and I learnt for myself. I saw trees and I tried to draw them, for example. The only person who supported me was my father, who gave me the supplies I needed. I was always learning by myself, I taught myself.” His painting entitled Stop the Genocide of the Yazidis shows the suffering of a mother and her young children, and Kheder adds that it represents a scream for justice. He is aware of its similarities to Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s The Scream, but says he was not thinking about that work directly while painting. For Kheder, the important theme he wishes to foreground is ongoing suffering in the form of a cri de coeur on behalf of the Yazidi community: the symbolic spires of the holy temple of Lalish can be seen in the background. Kheder speaks passionately about what now needs to done for his community and others that have suffered: “Yazidis, Christians, and minorities in Sinjar and the Nineveh Plains can only be free when they have a voice to speak for themselves, otherwise the genocide continues. They need security and protection.” He is adamant that guilt for the genocide lies with local authorities as well as the perpetrators because his people were abandoned in their moment of need. Kheder calls on the international community to secure the region and help the Yazidi people to be autonomous, while also delivering justice to those who failed to keep them safe. His artistic message is one of support and recognition for the Yazidis, and he dreams of building an enormous monument, “like the Statue of Liberty”, either near Sinjar or even in France, to commemorate the suffering of those who have experienced genocide.

“The UN must help deliver justice for the genocide committed against my people.” – Kheder Daham