Country: Iraq

Group: Shabaks

Date Finalized: 11/23/21

Team: Gabriel Cardenas (lead), Victoria Fuller, Nichole Dahlen, Ann Thomas

            There is substantial evidence to conclude that the Shabak people have faced ethnocide by the Iraqi government and the Islamic State in the recent past. The overall data quality is high (3 of 3), with many sources discussing the issue.

Shabak people are an ethnic minority of about 250,000 members residing predominantly in the north in an area east of Mosul. They speak the Shabaki language, and approximately 70% of the members follow the Shi’a Islamic faith (Minority Rights Group, 2017). The Shabak people identify themselves as a distinct ethnic group, neither Kurd nor Arab, with a complex historical identity (Minority Rights, 2017; Vinogradov, 1974).

Since the 1930s, the Iraqi administrations have continually made efforts to Arabize Northern Iraq (Human Rights Watch, 2004). In the 1970s, this effort expanded by the creation of Kurdistan – an autonomous region governed by Kurds – and the forced displacement of 250,000 Kurds. Once Saddam Hussein came to power in the 1980s and led efforts to increase the assimilation of ethnic minority groups throughout Iraq (Human Rights Watch, 2004). During the 1987 census, the only two options for ethnicity were Arab and Kurd, and the Iraqi government announced that the Shabak were Arabs, causing many Shabaks to declare      themselves as Kurds in protest (Leezenberg, 2018). This protest resulted in the burning of Shabak homes, and the forced relocation of Shabaks (Van Zoonen & Wirya, 2017). During the late 1980s, the Iraqi government started the Anfal campaign, which targeted Kurds and individuals who fell outside of the census range (Human Rights Watch,2004; Leezenberg, 2018). Over 100,000 Kurds were killed and the Shabak people were also targeted, mistreated, and forced from their homes, and once the campaign concluded most were not allowed to return to them (Human Rights Watch,2004; Leezenberg, 2018).

After the US invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein Regime in 2003, violence toward ethnic and religious minorities increased, forcing Shabaks to flee from Mosul (O’Driscoll & van Zoonen, 2016). During this time, the emphasis was no longer placed on whether the Shabak were Arab or Kurd, but rather if they were Sunni or Shi’a Muslim, resulting in further division in the community (Leezenberg, 2018). In 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) invaded Iraq and targeted Shi’a Muslims; killing, displacing, and forcing them to convert to Sunni (Human Rights Watch,2017). After ISIS was defeated, the Shabak still faced erasure of their ethnicity. The Kurds and Arabs have land disputes and other minorities end up falling into these disputes. The Kurds and Arabs both Shabaks as belonging to their ethnicity, but many in the community disagree.  Thus, some are seeking safety in allying with the Kurdish Regional Government or the Arab majority Federal Government (Salloum, 2016).

Sources    

  1. Humans Rights Watch (2004). Claims in Conflict: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing in Northern Iraq, (August 02, 2004). https://www.hrw.org/report/2004/08/02/claims-conflict/reversing-ethnic-cleansing-northern-iraq
  2. Humans Rights Watch (2017). Flawed Justice: Accountability for ISIS Crimes in Iraq, (September 05, 2017). https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/12/05/flawed-justice/accountability-isis-crimes-iraq
  3. Leezenberg, M. (2018). Transformations in Minority Religious Leadership: The Yezidis, Shabak, and Assyrians in Northern Iraq. Society of Islam. https://doi.org/10.1163/22131418-00602005
  4. O’Driscoll, D., & van Zoonen, D. (2016). Governing Nineveh After the Islamic State: A Solution for All Components. Middle East Research Institute. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep13594
  5. Salloum, S. (August 16, 2016). Division among Iraq’s Shabak minority reveals Kurdish-Arab land Rivalry. Al-Monitor. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2016/08/shabak-minority-iraq-kurdistan-baghdad-erbil.html
  6. Minority Rights Group (2017). Shabak, (November 2017). International. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/shabak/
  7. Van Zoonen, D., and Wirya, K. (2017). The Shabaks Perceptions of Reconciliation and Conflict. Middle East Research Institute. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/The-Shabaks-Perceptions-of-Reconciliation-and-Conflict-Report.pdf
  8. Vinogradov, A. (1974). Ethnicity, Cultural Discontinuity and Power Brokers in Northern Iraq: The Case of the Shabak. American Ethnologist, 1(1), 207–218. http://www.jstor.org/stable/643810