The Duchess of Edinburgh has warned that the devastation of conflict-related sexual violence continues long after the guns fall silent, as she offered a comforting hug to a Yazidi genocide survivor.
Sophie was pictured with her arm around Awaz Abdi who was captured and enslaved by so-called Islamic State (IS) in Iraq a decade ago when she was just 10 years old.
The pair met when the duchess visited The Women Who Beat Isis travelling photography exhibition at the Foreign Office in London on Wednesday.
Sophie, who offered comfort to the Princess of Wales earlier this month by placing her hand on Kate’s back at the end of the Remembrance Sunday service, delivered an impassioned speech in which she paid tribute to the bravery of Yazidi genocide survivors including Ms Abdi.
She stressed that not enough was being done to prevent violence from happening around the world.
IS, also known as Daesh, brutally targeted the Yazidis, an ancient religious minority from northern Iraq, in 2014, murdering thousands of people, and abducting 7,000 women and children, in the Sinjar region.
The terrorist group perpetrated a catalogue of horrific violations, subjecting women and girls to sexual and other forms of slavery, and forcing boys to fight as child soldiers.
The duchess spoke of how the “world took an intake of breath” when the Yazidi people began to share their experiences of the atrocities.
“I don’t think it was until voices of the Yazidi community came forward that so many people in the world were suddenly made aware of this terrible atrocity,” Sophie said.
“But actually the Yazidi voice became very powerful, and I pay tribute to all of those in the community for being brave enough to step forward, because it really was a moment when the world took an intake of breath and realised just how devastating this had been, the atrocities that Daesh had carried out on the Yazidis and other minority communities.”
The duchess added: “But the atrocities will continue, as we know, and the devastation, that conflict-related sexual violence has, continues.
“It doesn’t just stop when the guns fall silent, the devastation continues in the lives of those who have survived.”
The duchess listened to Ms Abdi share her personal experience during a panel discussion, learning how her entire family was captured and enslaved, how she was separated from them for months.
She and three of her siblings managed to escape to Kurdistan, before they were all reunited in Germany.
Ms Abdi spoke emotionally of how their lives would never be the same again and how her family carried deep trauma from the horrific acts committed by IS, especially her parents, who endured unimaginable suffering.
Sophie said: “(Awaz) and her family have lived with the ongoing aftermath and will do their entire lives.
“Communities of devastated families are torn apart.
“This is singularly the most effective weapon that the world has, and we don’t do enough to deal with it because we don’t do enough to prevent the violence from happening.”
Sophie is a champion of the UN’s Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS) and a supporter of the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI).
She made a surprise visit to Iraq last year to champion survivors of sexual violence, and, last month, was moved to tears when she met refugees fleeing to Chad to escape the civil war in Sudan, after hearing their experiences of sexual violence.
The exhibition, which has been shown in cities around the world including Berlin and the Hague, tells the testimonies of survivors of the Yazidi genocide and documents the ongoing consequences.
The duchess praised the display as “incredibly important”, and thanked male colleagues who were involved in supporting it.
“We can actually change this. It’s not up to the women. It’s not up to the men. It’s up to all of us,” she said.
This event falls within the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an international annual campaign to challenge violence against women and girls.
