Sadiq Khedar (b.1995)

Sadiq is a young Yazidi artist from the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. For the past six years since the ISIS attack on his homeland began, he has been living in an IDP camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. While some of his friends and relatives have since returned to Sinjar province, Sadiq is unable to go back as his house was destroyed in the fighting when ISIS drove the Yazidi people out of their ancestral lands. Life in the camp is hard for Sadiq and his siblings – two brothers and one sister – with Sadiq working at the Ministry of Education to support his family financially. The Coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the family’s hardships, as Sadiq has lost what little income he had.

Sadiq explains that isolation is a particular problem in the camp: “Now everyone is scattered around, there is no-one from my village in this camp. Some of the people I know are living in other camps or outside Iraq, but my family and I have been alone here for six years now.” He misses living among his own people before the genocide, but even now in the camp he thinks being reunited with some his community could make a world of difference: “Life would be better than it is right now. At least we could see each other, talk to each other; if one of us needs something the others could help them.”

Sadiq has always been interested in drawing and art, although like many fellow Iraqis he points out that there was little to no support for artistic expression where he grew up. He was inspired in part by Falah Al-Rasam (“the painter”) who taught him English in Sinjar, and whose works are also displayed in the Nobody’s Listening exhibition. Sadiq’s painting Fleeing from Death documents the most dramatic event of his life. The work depicts Yazidi families, with young children among them, on Mount Sinjar in the wake of the devastating attack on their communities by ISIS that began on 03 August 2014. Sadiq himself spent one week on the mountain and explains that he painted this picture in response to his sadness at seeing so many people, young and old, fleeing from danger without food, water, or even shoes. He painted what he saw with his own eyes, in order not to forget. Sadiq hopes that his work can deliver a strong message to the world on behalf of his people. He wants the Yazidi community in Iraq to be recognized and to have the same rights as all other citizens: “I will tell you an example: now we are displaced people, and if we want to return to our home villages, we have to pay and lose our right to return to Kurdistan.”

Sadiq hopes that the UN and international community can support Iraqi authorities to rebuild Sinjar and protect it from further attacks, and he asks the Iraqi authorities “to protect the Yazidi area well, not like before.” He is passionate about the role of art in the documentation of history and urges talented artists to continue developing their skills and to document events that they live through, just as he has done