Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Reportedly beginning at 10:00am on Monday, October 27, members of the Kurdish Diaspora will begin a five-day hunger strike at Lafayette Park across from the White House, culminating with a march to the White House and a demonstration on Friday, October 31 from 12:00-3:00pm. The procession will include a mock Islamic State (IS) slave market, exhibiting the humanitarian disaster being faced by thousands of Yezidi and Christian women and girls currently being held captive by IS in Iraq and Syria.
In a statement event organizer Goran Slemani declared: “I am confident that as more people become aware of this crisis, they will encourage world powers to take action against IS and to save thousands of women and children from being raped and sold into slavery. We are going on hunger strike because the Christians and the Yezidis of the region need our voices!”
The event is sponsored by Kurdish Human Rights Watch and endorsed by the Kurdish National Congress. A statement of support is to be released. The effort shows a joint effort by these entities and other individuals and interdenominational organizations of faith the hope and commitment that their voices are heard. As such this will encourage and foster the United States and other word governments to act immediately and actively to protect these ethnic groups from the ISIS genocide before it is too late.
According to Kurdish Human Rights Watch and other sources, ISIS has systematically abducted thousands of Yezidi and Christian women and girls and is holding them in makeshift detention facilities in Iraq and Syria. Most of them have been forced into marriage or sold into sexual slavery, in addition to daily rape and trauma. All have been subjected to forced religious conversion.
As reported by eKurd News:
The Kurdish National Congress of North America (KNC) is a non-profit, member-driven organization representing Kurds from all parts of Kurdistan living in the United States and Canada. Its objective is to unite Kurds living in North America to work for common goals, to promote the idea of a United Free Kurdistan, and to strengthen the voice of all Kurds living in the USA and Canada.
The mission of Kurdish Human Rights Watch, Inc. (KHRW) is to enable Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), refugees, [asylum seekers] and homeless individuals to achieve self-sufficiency and economic independence through direct assistance and capacity building.
Awareness and solidarity among our respective societies are important in that we must consider each other as equal, continuing to work together toward a world in which all are valued under the protection of basic human rights.
By Darren Smith
Sources:
EKurd News
Photo Credit: EKurd.net
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