"Hell and Hope" is one of VOA’s newest documentaries, focusing on the lives of Yazidi girls abducted by the Islamic State in 2014 from Iraq’s Sinjar province. Faced with rape, torture and trafficking, a few girls dared to escape while risking their lives. VOA producer Amish Srivastava and correspondent Dakhil Elias traveled to Germany to meet and record the stories of some of the girls, who were eventually able to settle in Stuttgart, Germany, where many live and work today.
Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority suffered greatly at the hands of the Islamic State. Sixty-nine mass graves have been discovered in Sinjar province, where 600,000 Yazidis once lived before IS wreaked havoc on the small Iraqi province.
The personal stories of tragedy over triumph have not gone unnoticed, as the film is set to be viewed by the Stuttgart parliament in July 2019, with further plans of honoring the progress made by the young Yazidi women slated for later this summer.
The documentary is currently available in English, and many of VOA’s 40 plus language services have already or plan to showcase the documentary in full or in parts to their audiences.