Photography by Mona van den Berg | 2026
Fawziya Zandinan was born in 2005 in Shingal, in northern Iraq, into the Yazidi community. Her childhood was marked by closeness, stability, and a sense of belonging. She grew up in a family that supported her education and encouraged her to go to school, imagining a future shaped by learning and possibility.
“I had a beautiful, warm family. Mother and father. My father worked on a farm, my younger brothers and I were at school, playing together with friends. I was nine years old and we were always together.”
That world was shattered in August 2014, when ISIS attacked Shingal. Fawziya was just 9 years old when she was abducted by ISIS and separated from her parents and little brothers. Over the next four years, she was sold several times before eventually being freed. Her parents and one brother remain missing to this day.
“They have taken everything from me – my family, parents, brothers, dreams, friends.”
After her liberation, Fawziya’s life did not return to what it had been. She lived in camps in Kurdistan, where she took on responsibilities far beyond her age. She was reunited with her two little brothers and cared for them and learned to navigate daily life shaped by displacement and uncertainty. Her connection to children, and her desire to work with them, grew from these years.
In 2024, Fawziya travelled to the Netherlands to attend a conference she was invited to by Yazidi Legal Network and The Nuhanovic Foundation, to share her story because it was marking ten years since the genocide against the Yazidi people. She has since applied for asylum. Today, she is trying to build a life in a new country while carrying the weight of separation and uncertainty.
“My life now in the Netherlands – yes, I find it pleasant, but also difficult, because my two younger brothers are still in the camp in Iraq.”
She is attending school and learning Dutch, while waiting for clarity about her future.
“I’m at school and learning Dutch. But it’s difficult because I haven’t heard anything from the IND about my status yet. Things are also difficult with my brothers because we were always together. I miss them very much. I hope to hear something from the IND soon about whether I can stay or not.”
Fawziya wants to study law. Her interest in justice has grown from her own experience and from following cases against ISIS members in Europe. She speaks about the limits of punishment and the distance between legal sentences and lived loss.
“Many people say that ten years is a lot, but for what happened to us, a ten-year sentence is nothing at all. We have been without our family for more than ten years because of ISIS. That is very painful when you don’t know for a long period whether your family is still alive.”
At the same time, she refuses to define her life only by what was taken from her. “They broke my heart, but I’m still here. I have won because I have a new life.”
For Fawziya, the future remains uncertain, but her determination is clear. “We can no longer live in Iraq. Because it is not safe. ISIS is back and they are just living there. There may not be a war, but…”
After reflecting on everything that she’s been put through, Fawziya’s message to others is simple and direct: “Never give up. Everything will be alright.”
Fawziya’s story reflects not only the crimes committed against the Yazidi community, but also the long aftermath of genocide – the years in which survivors must rebuild their lives without parents, siblings, and certainty.
Supported by the Nuhanovic Foundation and Yazidi Legal Network, her journey forms part of a broader struggle for recognition, accountability, and justice that continues long after the violence itself has ended.
About The Photographer
Mona van den Berg is a Dutch photographer whose work focuses on human rights, women’s rights, and migration. She makes injustices visible and gives a platform to marginalized groups whose voices are often overlooked in mainstream media. Her photography has been published nationally and internationally, combining compassion with long-term engagement to ensure that people’s perspectives are represented on their own terms.
Her major project The Silent Wounds of War – Unveiling the Silence documents survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in 20 countries, including Bosnia, Kosovo, Congo, Liberia, and Colombia. The project will culminate in a book publication on 19 June 2027. Alongside this, she also works on broader stories about displacement, migration, and resilience.
Her work has received several awards, including recognition in multiple categories of the Zilveren Camera, the most prestigious photojournalistic award in the Netherlands.
“Fawziya is impossible to overlook, despite her small stature. She is a striking presence, radiant and unforgettable. Yet beneath that light lies a deep trauma. She leaves a profound impression—fighting relentlessly for her future while staring the unimaginable, her own trauma, directly in the eye. A survivor of ISIS, she has endured horrors that defy imagination. And still, she looks straight into the camera, defiant: You will not break me.”
– Mona van den Berg
Justice
From War to Democracy and Freedom
Our latest initiative, a storytelling campaign titled Justice: From War to Democracy & Freedom, showcases the real-life experiences of survivors and victims of international crimes and grave human rights violations. At the heart of this campaign are the survivors themselves, the faces, voices, and stories behind these precedent-setting legal battles, which will be brought to life through a series of survivor portraits captured by acclaimed photographers. Through these portraits, our goal is to make the resilience, courage, and pursuit of justice of these individuals tangible, urgent, and deeply relatable.
