Prove you suffer, prove you aren't Daesh - An empirical study on internal displacement in the Ninewa region in Iraq

Abstract

Throughout its history Iraq has been plagued by colonialism, the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. invasion of Iraq and sectarian violence more broadly. Since June 2014 when the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) captured nearly a third of Iraq, the threat of acts of terror and the ‘influx’ of forcibly displaced people have been in the limelight of international attention. During this period there have been reports on the plight of minorities and and the brutality of the IS, particularly in the Ninewa region in Iraq. In the summer of 2017, Mosul was the site of a large military battle involving the international coalition, the Iraqi government, Kurdish troops and militia groups working together in a coordinated effort to defeat IS. These events have resulted in a large number of internally displaced persons, amounting to more than 3 million at the height of the humanitarian emergency, highlighting a need for reviewing the consequences of displacement in Ninewa.

With the help of open-ended interviews and ethnographic observation conducted in Iraq in July 2018, this thesis seeks to understand the context of internal displacement in Ninewa and contribute to the very limited academic literature on internal displacement in the region. It examines the label ‘internally displaced person’ and highlights the term’s interconnectedness with violence and the role of the trauma story. By using intersectionality as an analytical tool, this research analyses how the violence experienced by internally displaced persons is impacted by factors such as gender, ethno-religious background and socio-economic situation. It also looks at the role of the ‘local’ and the ‘international’ in this state of emergency.

The findings of this thesis are that the dynamics of internal displacement in Ninewa paint a much more complex picture than the one painted by in international reports. This research also concludes that the violence that led to displacement was the major cause of marginalisation, which, through intersections with gender, socio-economic situation and ethno-religious belonging shapes individual displacement experiences and vice versa. The management of the crisis has largely been shaped by the historical consequences of the various conflicts in Iraq and by the specific threat that the Islamic State posed not only to Iraq, but also on the international community more broadly. This has made the situation in Ninewa an ‘exceptional state of exception’, which the securitisation of the management of the crisis has been legitimised in ways that have concrete impacts on locals through checkpoints and requiring individuals to verify their identity and experiences. The involvement of and diffusion between multiple actors on the local and international levels have further complicated the experiences of IDPs and the power dynamics in Ninewa.