Country: Iraq

Group: Chaldeans

Date Finalized: 3/1/2022

Team: Jacob Kebe (lead), Anthony Un, Hajer Rahee, Kelsey Dwyer

Content Warning: sexual slavery

Approximate Time Period: 2004 to present

The Chaldeans are a religious minority that has lived in the Iraq region since ancient times, (Minority Rights, 2021) but in modern history the Iraqi state as well as terrorist groups have targeted them because they do not follow the teachings of Islam. After the United States invasion of Iraq and killing of Saddam Hussein, religious extremist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have grown and begun to target religious minorities in Iraq, one of them being the Chaldean Christians (Minority Rights, 2021). Among other atrocities, ISIS has captured Chaldean women and children from their villages and used and sold them as sex slaves (Minority Rights, 2021). In 2014, Chaldean Archbishop Amel Nona wrote a letter condemning the genocide of Christians in Iraq, making specific reference to ISIS enslaving his people. ISIS has issued threats to Christian populations such as the Chaldeans that they will enslave their women if the Christians do not convert (Shea, 2016). Many victims and survivors of ISIS’s brutality toward the Christian population in Iraq have reinforced the practice of slavery, of women and children being sold into slavery, held in detention centers, and raped by members of ISIS (Shea, 2016).

Data Quality: Data quality is rated as 2 of 3 because while there is a wealth of information about Christian slavery in Iraq, there are not many direct references to Chaldeans specifically. Most of the information was found from one source, although the source is peer reviewed and credible.

Sources

  1. Bias Busters: Cultural competence guides. (2021, November 24) Chaldeans: Bias Busters: Cultural competence guides | Answers about race, religion, ethnicity, gender.. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://news.jrn.msu.edu/culturalcompetence/race/chaldeans/
  2. Minority Rights Group. (2021, February 6). Chaldeans. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/chaldeans/
  3. Shea, Nina. “The ISIS Genocide of Middle Eastern Christian Minorities and its Jizya Propaganda Ploy” Hudson Institute. (2016, August). Retrieved October 12, 2022 from http://media.hudson.org.s3.amazonaws.com/files/publications/20160721TheISISGenocideofMiddleEasternChristianMinoritiesandItsJizyaPropagandaPloy.pdf