The Beekeeper of Sinjar: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq

by Dunya Mikhail, Max Weiss (Translator)

In The Beekeeper of Sinjar, the acclaimed poet and journalist Dunya Mikhail tells the harrowing stories of women from across Iraq who have managed to escape the clutches of ISIS. Since 2014, ISIS has been persecuting the Yazidi people, killing or enslaving those who won't convert to Islam. These women have lost their families and loved ones, along with everything they've ever known. Dunya Mikhail weaves together the women's tales of endurance and near-impossible escape with the story of her own exile and her dreams for the future of Iraq.
In the midst of ISIS's reign of terror and hatred, an unlikely hero has emerged: the Beekeeper. Once a trader selling his mountain honey across the region, when ISIS came to Sinjar he turned his knowledge of the local terrain to another, more dangerous use. Along with a secret network of transporters, helpers, and former bootleggers, Abdullah Shrem smuggles brutalised Yazidi women to safety through the war-torn landscapes of Iraq, Syria, and Western Turkey.
This powerful work of literary nonfiction offers a counterpoint to ISIS's genocidal extremism: hope, as ordinary people risk torture and death to save the lives of others.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Middle East, War, Memoir, Politics, Biography

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 27, 2018

About the author

Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi American poet and writer. She is the author of the poetry collections The War Works Hard, shortlisted for the International Griffon Poetry Prize, Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (winner of the Arab American Book Award), The Iraqi Nights, winner of the Poetry Magazine Translation Award, and In Her Feminine Sign, chosen as one of the ten best poetry books of 2019 by The New York Public Library.

Her nonfiction book The Beekeeper was a finalist for the National Book Award, and her debut novel, The Bird Tattoo, was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Mikhail is a laureate of the UNESCO Sharja Prize for Arab Culture and has received the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing, as well as fellowships from the United States Artists, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation.

She currently teaches Arabic and poetry at Oakland University in Michigan.

Reviews

[Anita Pomerantz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book.

It essentially is a series of transcribed interviews with a wonderful person who rescues (mostly Yazidi) women kidnapped by Daesh. The man is a true hero, and I love that his story is being told. He risks a lot to save women who have undergone the most horrific atrocities. The book also relates the stories of these women, and all I could think of was how much it reminded me of the Holocaust. Honestly, these first person accounts truly raise awareness of the plights of people in the face of pure evil. From that standpoint, this book should be read.

But there was something about how it was written that just left me cold. The stories weren't written into a narrative that really gave us much insight into the man doing the rescuing. Meanwhile, the author did have points where she talked about herself and her return to Iraq, but those elements didn't really add anything to the book. The atrocities were so many and so similar that it began to feel like the same awful tale over and over; yet somehow the victims didn't come to life for me and neither did any other elements (history, religion, politics - - the drivers behind the evil).

All in all, I feel it is important to bear witness to the atrocities and to let the world know about them. This book does so, and the first few stories brought tears to my eyes. For that alone, I would recommend it.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi-Assyrian poet who is now based in the United States but was born in Iraq and graduated with a BA from the University of Baghdad some years later. She has worked as a journalist and a translator for "The Baghdad Observer", a prominent Iraqi newspaper before being questioned by Saddam Hussein's government and facing increasing threats and harassment from the Iraqi authorities for her writings. As a result of this, and to be able to carry-on enjoying her chosen profession, she fled Iraq via Jordan, eventually settling in America. Mikhail both speaks and writes in Arabic, Assyrian and English. Most of her previous work is classified as poetry including "The War Works Hard" which won PEN's Trnslation Fund Award, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and was named one of the best books of 2005 by the New York Public Library. In 2001, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing.

Wow, and I really mean wow! This is a powerful book. Although the topic is upsetting and opens your eyes up to the cruelty in our world, it was a story that needed to be told and I am so appreciative that Mikhail was the one who chose to do this. Her writing is exquisite. Maybe the most exquisite I have ever come across. If you can read this and keep from becoming an emotional wreck, you are very skilled (or maybe just cold). We are all familiar with the ghastly images and stories of the horrendous things going on in wartorn Syria and most of us probably believe that pictures get the message across better than any other method of communication. That is not the case here, this book not only completely overpowers the television accounts but tells the stories of these women, men, and children in a compassionate and detailed way.

The plight of the Yazidi people makes for uncomfortable but neccessary reading. I feel everyone should be acquiring a copy as the message of hope rather than hopelessness is such an important one. Even if the odds seemed stacked against them these people had hope that endured many lifetimes of heartache and pain. Abdullah, The eponymous beekeeper, used his knowledge of the local terrain in order to smuggle Yazidi women to safety, keeping hope alive for those still missing as well as their relatives. This book goes some way to highlighting what they went through but I don't believe we could truly know or even begin to understand the true unimaginable horror of their experiences.

I am positive that this was as difficult to write as it was for us to read, especially with the authors proximity to the people and the location. As I have made an effort to delve deeper into poetry in the past few years, now that I know the beauty with which Mikhail writes I will be swiftly purchasing and reading "The War Works Hard" as an opening into her wider work and will go from there.

Many thanks to Serpent's Tail for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are the stories of girls and women who have been captured by Daesh. The former beekeeper, Abudllah, is dedicated to rescuing them, and plans to return to beekeeping once the Daesh war is over.

It is hard to picture this. It seems to start with the knowledge that Daesh is in the area. There is no time to take much and most flee on foot. Many are shot and women and girls are taken as sex and house slaves.

Most rescues happen when women find a way out of their confinement (this is possible since their Daesh captors go away to fight) and get access to a cell phone. They call a relative who arranges a pick up, usually to a safe house until it seems ok to move back home or to a refugee camp. Abdullah, who seems to have a network of smugglers and drivers, will negotiate thousands ($US) for ransom, or an outright buy in a “market” (not explained) for the low hundreds.

There are descriptions of life in captivity. The women are continually raped (usually after a prayer). If their children are with them they are always under threat. The whereabouts of family is unknown; they are often dead. All of this is justified by a religious edict.

The author includes reminisces of her childhood in Iraq and some of her poetry. There are visits to refugee camps, (one is an apartment building), Yizidi holy places and a US show of art by asylum seekers.

Three things struck me
• The kindness of strangers. Once a woman escapes people will help. One escapee, by chance, went into a dressmaker’s shop and the dressmaker hid her and her two children for 3 months. Others receive help from cab drivers, people loaning cell phones and many people who merely answer a knock on a door
• How people seem to know each other. One captive encountered the son of a good friend (now a soldier with Daesh). She told him how to find ransom money in her former house. In one instance, not knowing a phone number, a phone book was used to get random numbers through which they found someone who knew a relative who arranged a pick up..
• The cruelty of Daesh. The mass killings, treatment of the captive women (one had her children killed just before her rape); Ragheb’s description of the training program infused by anger and religion.

My 3 stars are generous. While it is important to get these stories out, the book is highly disorganized. A story can end abruptly or another can start before it ends. Some of the stories are incomplete: i.e. what happened to Claudia’s son?

The reader gets very little orientation so it is hard to understand how things fit together.
- These can be over arching omissions, such as who is the beekeeper? How does the writer, who lives in Michigan, know him? How does he raise thousands of dollars?
- These can be little things such as how did the author get photos from the Daesh houses? What is the Office of Kidnapped Affairs? Does Abdullah work for it?

The author has access to sources and most likely more information. The topic deserves a better treatment.

[Paula Bardell-Hedley · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In action movies, fires are started, walls crumble down all at once, planets shake, birds fly off the trees. But we weren't in a movie when we saw all that happen. This was our reality.”

The Beekeeper of Sinjar is the true story of Abdullah Sharem, an Iraqi beekeeper who saved the lives of Yazidi women sold into slavery by the Muslim fundamentalists known as Daesh, or Islamic State.

Sinjar is a town in the Nineveh Province of Iraq, close to Mount Shingal. In the west, we were mostly ignorant of the region until it emerged al-Qaeda had caused several explosions there in 2007, killing hundreds of Yazidis (its endogamous, Kurdish-speaking population, whose religion is Yazidism – a combination of several monotheistic beliefs). Seven years later, Daesh (sometimes known as ISIL or ISIS) seized the township and coldly slaughtered 3,000 elderly and male Yazidis, dumping their bodies in mass graves, then forced the women to become sex slaves. This led to the mass exodus of a people who had inhabited the area for thousands of years.

Dunya Mikhail, a celebrated Iraqi-Assyrian poet and journalist from Baghdad, who was forced to flee her homeland during the rule of Saddam Hussein (she now lives and teaches in the USA), has gathered in her book an extraordinary collection of first-person narratives directly from those who survived these horrendous ordeals, and also from their rescuers.

Mikhail begins by thanking the “women who escaped the clutches of Daesh […] for their willingness to speak about the details of their suffering, despite the fact that deep wounds don't speak, they can only be felt.” She had been fortunate to befriend Abdullah, the apiarist who had traded in honey until Daesh seized his relatives, after which he devoted his every waking moment to finding them. As a consequence, others turned to him for assistance in seeking their missing family members. Because of his many business relationships and detailed knowledge of the roads, he rapidly developed a wide network of contacts willing to risk their lives helping him. He succeeded in rescuing many women against all the odds from their brutal captors.

“I used to have a huge garden in Sinjar where I would tend to the beehives for hours on end,” he tells Mikhail. “The movements of the queen bee […], her superior flying abilities compared to the males amazed me, made me profoundly appreciate all the women in my life.” After comparing humankind with his colony of bees, he goes on to say: “In our society women work and sacrifice for others without getting what they deserve. Women are oppressed even outside the world of Daesh, which has nothing whatsoever to do with rational […] life.”

Abdullah is a profoundly humane and likeable character, and without him Mikhail could not have written this book. He put her directly in touch with many brutalized victims, some of whom spoke to her personally of their remarkable escapes from these violent, frequently drugged fighters with their twisted ideologies.

The Beekeeper of Sinjar isn't an easy read but it is often moving and inspirational. It is also vital, I feel, that we as readers bear witness to atrocities of this sort in order to prevent them from happening again.

Many thanks to Serpent's Tail for providing an advance review copy of this title.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has all of the ingredients of a fictional best seller, violence, good versus evil, innocents caught in the Hell of oppression, an unsung, underground group of heroes risking their lives for others. There is intrigue, action, horrific scenes as vivid as “reality.” Most importantly, it has hope, because we need to feel hope and to walk away feeling good. Readers would be clambering to purchase and devour THE BEEKEEPER by Dunya Mikhail.

Sadly, THE BEEKEEPER is NOT fiction. It IS reality, it is heinous, unthinkable and it is happening now. Dunya Mikhail is the vehicle for the traumatized survivors of physical torture, rape, and dehumanization to tell their stories in their own words. Yes, there are heroes who risk and often lose their lives for justice and for humanity.

The women of Northern Iraq have been murdered and brutalized by Daesh (ISIS), supposedly in the name of religion. Their families are gone, their bodies used and abused, sold as slaves, raped, humiliated and those who have escaped have risked themselves again to tell their stories. They tell of being spirited away to freedom by their countrymen who still cling to honor, who resist the clutches of a twisted terrorist group.

There IS a beekeeper, a man who has risked everything to free these women and children, but he is also a legion of brave rebels, who are part of the pipeline to freedom.

This is NOT a book to overlook because it is NON-fiction! If you want heroes, they are here, larger than life. Do you want survivors? Looking for bravery beyond what can be humanly expected? This is gut-wrenching reality, this is the ugly side of life we know exists, but are safely only peripheral bystanders. This is a must read, and if this book makes even one person take action, then it has not been written in vain.

This cannot be unread or forgotten. This is horror at its worst and can we afford to sit back because it is happening 'somewhere else?"

I received a complimentary ARC edition from New Directions! My review is voluntary.

Publisher: New Directions; 1 edition (March 27, 2018)
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
Genre: Non-Fiction
Print Length: 240 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

[_minaeeeee · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب خیلی ارزشمند و پرمحتوا
که خوندن و دونستنش از لازماته!

کتاب مجموعه ای از داستان ها و روایت زنان و خانواده هایی هست که تحت محاصره داعش قرار گرفتن
و هر کودوم از نقطه نظری این درد و رنج رو بازگو میکرد
اما ابدا کتاب غمگینی نبود
جوری نبود بعد از خوندنش دپ شم
شاید نحوه چینش قصه ها به انتخاب نویسنده و انسجام اونها بی تاثیر نبوده باشه
و هر چی پیش می رفت انتظار این اتفاقات دور از ذهن نبود....
پایان خوبی هم براش در نظر گرفته شده بود
عمیقا دلم خواست پیش جمیله بودم و بغلش میکردم :(((((
زنده بودن و زندگی کردن تا وقتی معنا داره که امید جریان داشته باشه
و لعنت به هر زمانی که صفر تا صد امیدت تو وجود یه آدم حلول پیدا کنه
دیگه اینکه
مصور بودن بعضی صفحات ، همه و همه واقعی بودن این ماجرا رو بیشتر از قبل نشون میداد
در کل هر چیزی که باعث بشه من به این کتاب ۵ بدم رو داشت

دوس دارم روزی به لالش برم ، توصیفات نویسنده از محل و آیین ها برام جذابیت داشت

+

سپاس ما نثار زنانی که از چنگال داعش گریختند و آمدند تا از ذره ذره رنج هایشان سخن بگویند. هر چند به راستی چنین زخم های عمیقی را نمی توان بر زبان آورد و تنها باید آن ها را لمس کرد.

سپاس ما نثار قربانیانی که هدف تیرهای داعش قرار گرفتند ولی جان به در بردند ، کسانی که بازگشتند تا سرگذشتشان را برای ما روایت کنند.

سپاس ما نثار مردمی که در اردوگاه ها به سر می برند به خاطر دل هایشان که درست مثل چادرهای محل زندگی شان رو به هوای آزاد باز است.

سپاس ما نثار عبدالله شِرِم که از جمله قهرمانان روزگار ما است.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that I read this book in less than six hours demonstrates just how gripping it was, but it was not an easy read. A lot of tears were shed and I often read with my mouth agape. I don't think there is anyway to prepare to read the real-life traumas of a group of people who you can identify with in many ways. I will never understand the spirit in which people can rape, murder, bury alive and virtually rip apart families in the name of any God or religion. And in the end, you realize that if the global community cannot come together to stop these kinds of atrocities then are any of us really, truly ever safe?

Mikhail allowed these women and Abdalla to tell their stories uncensored, raw and with alarming honest. She didn't insert herself selfishly into their narratives and provided a safe space for them to share. And as painful and uncomfortable as it was for me to read it, imagine just how much more painful it was for them. Everyone with an ounce of compassion needs to read this. There is no way anyone can read this and remain unchanged.

[Crimelpoint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nie do końca wiedziałam czego mam od tej książki oczekiwać, jednak chyba nikt nie przygotował mnie na tak świetną i poruszającą pozycję.

Czytało się ją bardzo szybko. Nie sposób się od niej oderwać, bo tak bardzo ta książka wciąga. Właściwie każda historia szokuje i aż trudno nam w nie uwierzyć. Podczas jej czytania miałam przed oczami "Anhusz", jednak tam opisane wydarzenia miały miejsce podczas I wojny światowej, natomiast tutaj to wszystko dzieje się teraz. Dlatego tym bardziej ciężko w to uwierzyć i dlatego tym bardziej warto po to sięgnąć.

Książka jest jedną z tych, która sprawia, że zastanawiamy się nad swoim życiem. Naprawdę gorąco polecam, nawet jeśli zazwyczaj nie sięgamy po takie pozycje.

[Marwa Abdullah]

مأساة الأشخاص لا أقيّمها بالنجوم.

تقول الكاتبة:"صحيح أن العنف متوفر ورخيص،كالهواء، في كل مكان، والألم موجود كذلك في كل مكان، إنما ألمُنا يوجع أكثر".

آه يا عراق، آه من الأعماق.
كيف سأصف الكتاب، سأحاول الإختصار والتعافي في قادم الأيام ممّا قرأته، لا أعرف كيف، لكنني سأحاول.

هذا الكتاب عبارة عن شهادات حيّة لـ مختطفات إيزيديات وما عانينه على يد داعش.
عن قراهنّ التي أبيدت، عن أجسادهنّ التي استبيحت، عن عائلاتهنّ التي دفنت في مقابر جماعية..
عن بيوتهنّ التي هُدمت.
عن الخراب الذي طال أرواحهنّ والذي صعب الشفاء منه.
ناجيات من داعش بفضل "عبد الله" الذي كان بالأصل مربيّا للنحل لكنه نذر نفسه لإنقاذ المختطفات من قبضة داعش، وهو في طريقه لإنقاذ أخته وقريباته.
يقول عبد الله: "كل يوم أنقذها وأنا أنقذ ملكة من الملكات اللواتي يسمّونهن ''سبايا'' ".

الأسلوب المتّبع توثيقي وليس روائي ولذلك قد لا يروق للبعض.
الشهادات موجعة.
وفي كل مرة أقرأ عن هذا التنظيم المخرّب، تقفز إلى ذهني فكرة وحيدة: إنهم مرضى..
لو فتّشنا في ماضيهم وطفولتهم خاصة قد نعثر عمّا يؤيّد هذه الفكرة.. إنها عقد نفسية متراكمة..
كيف يصدر كل هذا العنف والبشاعة عن شخص طبيعي.
كيف يستلذّ شخص طبيعي بتعذيب إنسان آخر لأنه فقط مختلف معه في الدين أو التوجه؟!

[Booknblues · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a particular interest in refugees and their stories, especially those who may be excluded from immigrating to the US. When I read a review of the newly released book, The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail, I was intrigued . I began it right away and found it difficult to put down and through this review, I hope to encourage others to read it.

This is not easy or pleasant reading material as the story of refugees rarely is. I think though that it brings to light what happened in Syria and Iraq under Isis in a way that is not available through the news media and I appreciated that.

Dunya Mikhail is a poet and a teacher who fled Iraq over 20 years ago and became an American citizen. Through calls to Iraq she makes acquaintance with a beekeeper who currently works to free Yadizi women from Isis or as is used this book the more perjorative term Daesh. As the Yadizi are not Islamic, they were in grave danger when the Daesh invaded. They killed the men and older women and enslaved the women.

The women would attempt to escape when the opportunity presented itself. One of those they would call was Abdullah, the beekeeper. As he says:

"In our society women work and sacrifice for others without getting what they deserve, without enjoying the same privileges as men. Women are oppressed even outside the world of Daesh, which has nothing whatsoever to do with rational human life, of course. I had experience as a businessman, which required a reputation, many business relationships, and knowledge of the roads. With the money I made selling honey in Iraq and Syria I was able to help save female captives — and I rely upon the same skills in my new work. I cultivated a hive of transporters and smugglers from both sexes to save our queens, the ones Daeshis call sabaya, sex slaves. We worked like in a beehive, with extreme care and well-planned initiatives.”

We read many of the individual women's stories in this book and each one was heart rending.

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to her, I imagined a butterfly’s wings fluttering inside of her voice.
*
Anyway, what is survival when the calamity survives along with you? To survive all alone is the worst kind of survival.
*
After all, violence can hurt without making a sound.
*
Sometimes I can’t transfer the feelings so I just stare at the walls instead, the walls of a house filled with people who can’t be bought or sold — at least that’s what we believe.
*
The mirror on the wall
doesn’t show any of the faces
that used to pass
in front of it.
*
The clouds descended upon us
war by war,
picked up our years,
our hanging gardens,
and flew away like storks.

[Amena · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Beekeeper of Sinjar by Dunya Mikhail
“Their souls haven’t moved on, they never will. That’s why their bodies hurt so much. Staying alive doesn’t mean permanent survival. Anyway, what is survival when the calamity survives along with you? To survive all alone is the worst kind of survival.”

Until 2014, Abdullah Shrem worked as a beekeeper in Sinjar, Iraq, selling honey. This book is a piece of non-fiction detailing accounts of numerous women who were captured by ISIS and who he helped to escape. It is written by Dunya Mikhail, an Iraqi-Assyrian poet who is now based in the United States but was born in Iraq. She had worked as a journalist for ‘The Baghdad Observer’ before she had to flee Iraq via Jordan. Her own journey as well as the beekeeper’s himself, is included in this book.
Sinjar is a town in the Nineveh province of Iraq, close to Mount Shingal. Those not familiar with the area soon learned of it when stories emerged of Al-Qaeda causing several explosions in 2007 resulting in the death of hundreds of Yazidis, the people who lived there. Seven years later, Daesh, also known as ISIS, seized the town. From the very first page, the writing is hard-hitting and utterly heart-breaking. There are no other words to describe how I felt whilst reading this book. I could not believe I was reading events that actually happened, when ISIS stormed into Iraq and captured Yazidi people. I could not believe it was real life, that families were forced to flee their homes and take shelter on a mountain in Sinjar. So many of the families left with nothing else but the clothes on their back; some did not even take necessities for their children, such as nappies, water or food. They walked for miles; some found a camp. Their remarkable courage has flown into my veins and remains there, reminding me of their trauma.
Every woman’s story is unique to herself, yet each shares similarities with the other. When the Daesh infiltrated Iraq, they separated men from the women, giving assurances that everything would be okay and this was a somewhat temporary measure. These women watched their men, grandparents and own children buried alive. Some boys were recruited for training, which included learning how to kill and how to chop off people’s heads. The women were beaten and raped, some in front of their very own children. They were told to make rockets for ISIS and if there was any fault found, they were beaten with an electric cable.
Abdullah recounts the first time he saved a girl in 2014, when he received a call from a female, Marwa, who had been kidnapped. He tells her she needs to get out. Six days later she contacts him again and explains she is safe in the home of a Syrian family. Marwa had a guard who was a Daeshi woman. She would bite her, beat her and prevented her from doing anything, including dying. Marwa came back alone without any members of her family. Abdullah then tells the reader he has fifty-six members of his own family who are still missing. This includes his own brother and sister.
The women captured were sold at a market to other Daesh men. They kept the women and children in the same clothes for the entire duration of their captivity. This could be up to a whole year. They married girls as a little as nine years old. You have some who try to run away but are caught and punished. Others who memorise Abdullah’s number after being given it by other women that were detained in a building before they were all sold.
One particular story of a woman called Zuhour made me really question humanity. She flees Daesh and manages to seek refuge with a seamstress nearby called Reem, who offers to help her. Reem warns that her own father is a member of Daesh. Zuhour has three children; two girls and a baby boy. Luckily, the father travels for weeks at a time so Zuhour could stay freely when he was not around but when he returned home she hid with her children in a sewing room. After staying with her for two and a half months, Zuhour eventually leaves but not after her sadness and despair is conveyed to the reader. What is also incredible in this story is that Zuhour’s family form such an attachment with Reem that she herself wished she fled with them.
Mikhail herself tells of her own story, focuses on the Iran-Iraq war and how she fled. Abdullah also has a tale to tell about his family and how they go missing. His phone will ring midway through the text and he will return to the story he was telling when we meet him again. He is a real hero, stepping in when his cousin Nadia is captured and separated from her husband, forced to convert to Islam with her children and then sold to “marry” a Daesh fighter. He does talk, however, about his work failing and the challenges he encounters.
I don’t think there are enough words to do a book such as this justice. It needs to be read. It should be read. It presents the reality of the Yazidi communities and details the abuse and horror they endured. I found it so traumatic that I couldn’t read for a good few days afterward. It is essential reading of the highest kind. There is incredible bravery and compassion from the communities in Sinjar which is highlighted many a time. I was left with thoughts of strength, a wonderment as to how the families tried to rebuild their lives after seeing and experiencing such horror. Whenever we read, it takes us on a journey and provides a portrait for the reader. This is a brutal one, captured through interviews of those who managed to escape. It is nothing less than a powerful tale of humanity.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read the reviews, and while everyone seems to agree on the courage and importance of the beekeeper himself--a man who dedicated himself to saving women abducted and enslaved by Daesh--some have objected to Dunya Mikhail's occasional focus on her own story as an immigrant and writer. To me, the story of the women is paramount, and the beekeeper is an international hero.
That Mikhail, an accomplished poet and writer, takes the time to establish her history and personal connection to this man and the women whose story he shares does not bother me; it justifies her interest and offers some relief from an otherwise unremitting sadness that his heroism was necessary.

[Venky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nadia Murad was a 19-year-old going about her life with a prosaic bent of mind when fighters from the Islamic State rounded up the Yazidi community in her village of Kocho in Sinjar District, Iraq. What followed was a tale of indescribable horror and dread. Exterminating close to 600 residents of the village, the rabid terrorists took into captivity Nadia and 6,700 other Yazidi women. Employed as ‘sabaya’ or a sex slave, Nadia endured wanton torture and unspeakable torment. Repeatedly sold on slave markets in Mossul, Tal Afar and Raqqa, Nadia was raped at will by her ‘purchasers’, physically beaten and burned with cigarettes. Adding to her woes was the fact that she lost 46 family members – that included her parents – in the ISIS massacre. After enduring an agonizing twelve months of captivity, Nadia managed to escape and flee to a refugee camp in Duhok, Northern Iraq. Now a resident of Germany, Nadia is engaged in spreading awareness about the atrocities committed by ISIS and their mindless genocide against the Yazidi community. In 2018, In 2018, she, along with Denis Mukwege were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict".

In her eviscerating, emotional and extraordinary book, “The Bee Keeper of Sinjar”, the Iraqi-American poet, Dunya Mikhail chronicles in a searing and poignant manner, the travails, tribulations and tumult of a multitude of Iraqi women abducted by the ISIS and subject to unimaginable acts of barbarity. While it requires nerves of steel and a heart of stone to get through till the end of Ms. Mikhail’s book, it also leaves the reader with a hope that emerges out of the very cockles of the heart. The reason for this surging optimism goes by the name of Abdullah, a former bee keeper who has dedicated his very existence, resources and determination to rescuing these vulnerable women from the despicable, diabolical and dreaded clutches of their sadistic captors. Using an elaborate and highly complicated networks of informants, smugglers and known Samaritans, Abdullah working in close co-ordination and co-operation of the Office of Kidnapped Affairs, meticulously pores over maps, prepares painstakingly in advance, plans escape routes and plucks the desperate women right from under the very noses of the ISIS before transporting them to various refugee camps.

The harrowing tales narrated by the women makes for some incredibly painful reading. Nadia a young Yazidi woman was sold on the sex slave market for 100,000 dinars (about US$85). The sale was made in a warehouse post an inspection exercise as a process of which the buyers selected their picks like choosing watermelons and after smelling the girls carefully. Nadia’s ‘buyer’ was a man from Chechnya and he carted away Nadia along with her three children (aged six, five and one), to a four-story building in the Tishreen Dam region. Mercilessly beating and raping her in front of her children, Nadia’s captor also had a penchant for “passing her on for a day or two, like presents being borrowed, a practice they called rent.” Nadia and her children worked for twelve hours every day making rockets for the Daesh. “They gave my five-year-old daughter the most dangerous job, tying together the detonation lines. At any moment a mistake could explode the bomb right in her face.”

If young women were taken captive and abused to satiate the sexual appetites of the reprobates, a worse fate (if such an extended misery was to be even possible) awaited the elderly women, the men and the little children who refused to be separated from their families. The Daesh separated the elderly, the men, and the obstinate children from the eligible women and either buried them all alive in makeshift pits or shot them down in a torrent of gunfire.

Ms. Mikhail also elucidates to her readers that even in the midst of savages there can be found miraculous examples of beacons of empathy. A shining example is that of the seamstress Reem. The daughter of a Daesh member, Reem smuggled Zuhour a mother of two in her warehouse, right under the nose of her unsuspecting father before the resourceful Abdullah whisked the trio away to safety. Reem did not even bat an eyelid before putting herself in a ridiculously dangerous position in trying to rescue Zuhour and her children.

The myriad cast of characters facing an existential crisis courtesy the ISIS ways, may be distilled from the assemblage in any refugee camp. In the camp at Arbat, for example, the occupants include Iraqis, Syrians, Kurds, Turks, Assyrians and Persians. There are people from many different regions taking shelter in the camp. Shabak and Christians fleeing from Mosul; Syrians escaping Kobani; Yazidis bidding goodbye to Sinjar, and Muslims escaping across the Tigris from al-Anbar on small skiffs.

This arresting work contains its own bit of gallows humour as well. As Ms. Mikhail writes, some women discovered ingenious techniques to ‘trick’ the Daesh and minimizing the grief caused to them. According to one of the captured women, Badia, who was purchased by a Daesh member originally hailing from the USA, there existed five tricks for escaping the Daesh: “the first trick was to stop bathing for an entire month, until she smelled so bad that the fighters would stay away from her, refusing to buy her. The second trick was to claim she was married, and that the little child beside her was her son. The third was to pretend she was pregnant in order to avoid being raped, if only temporarily. The fourth trick was to say that she’d just stepped outside with her girlfriend to get some air. The fifth trick was to call “the American Emir”, (an influential Daesh member originally from the USA), to make it clear that she was not trying to run away from him.”

The Daesh viewed the captured youth as potential enlistees for both their missions and martyrdom. With this intent they proceeded to give the boys intensive training. As the mother of a boy named Ragheb recollects, “Ragheb was forced to train for four hours every day, learning how to kill, how to chop off people’s heads. They would also teach him Quran for two hours a day and fight for another hour. They have classes on everything, from how to wash your hands to sex education, from impurity to handling an animal, from genetics to just about anything you can imagine – and things you can’t imagine. And finally a personalized sermon to convince him to die for God, so that he’ll be rewarded in heaven. They have special passes to get into heaven that are handed out at the end.”

To quote Nadia Murad, “the daily routine for Daesh is taking drugs, reciting religious songs, going to fight, and then coming home and raping women.” Even after being liberated from the vice like grip of the ISIS these women are scarred psychologically and physically for most of their lives. According to psychotherapist Dr. Nagham Nozad Hassan, the plight of survivors who get pregnant after they are raped is the worst. They develop conflicting feelings between “motherhood and the desire to get rid of Daesh embryos.”

The world is indebted to people of the likes of Abdullah. In spite of immense personal tragedy (he lost his brother and some family members to an ISIS mass slaughter), this former bee keeper from Sinjar has dedicated his life to bringing hope to those teetering on the brink of hopelessness. Ms. Mikhail with her haunting book does yeoman service to the noble deeds of Abdullah by bringing them out in the open for the whole of humanity to admire and emulate.

The selfless and heroic Abdullah has the last word. “With the money I made selling honey in Iraq and Syria, I was able to help save female captives – and I rely upon the same skills in my new work. I cultivated a hive of transporters and smugglers from both sexes to save our queens, the ones Daeshis call sabaya, sex slaves. We worked like in a bee-hive, with extreme care and well planned initiatives.”

We have no option but to offer our deepest gratitude and respect to him!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nie była najgorsza, jednak spodziewałam się czegoś więcej.

Sposób pisania książki został irytujący aż do końca.

[Nour Alaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

جولة داخل سوق السبايا الأيزيديات اللي داعش خطفوهم
و حوار مطول مع "عبدالله" المهرب اللي كان بيهرب السبايا دول
الكاتبة هنا بتحكي لنا علي قصص هروب عدد كبير من السبايا اللي داعش خاطفينهم
و إزاي بيتم تنسيق عملية الهروب و التكلفة العالية اللي كان أهل الضحايا بيتكلفوها
ناهيك عن المآسي الإنسانية و الإبادة الجماعية اللي عملتها داعش في حق الناس دي

بستغرب كتير لما بلاقي كتب و روايات مهمة بالشكل ده مش واخدة حقها ولا منتشرة بالشكل الكافي

[Gazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking.. The beekeeper tells the stories of many, mostly yazidi, women that were kidnapped by Daesh (isis). The things they went through, how they were treated, the trauma.. unbearable.
growing up in the safest city of iraq/kurdistan even I feared war, 2014 went by with lots of nightmares. There is this specific one that i still see sometimes from time to time. But i never encountered a mujahid. No one sold me, kidnapped or forced me to anything in this land. But the yazidi women in sinjar and mosul experienced all that and more. I still cant process that while all that happened, we were just 80 kms away. Living a way more better life just fearing the things those women experience. Real life.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting: it was too important to put down, and too heavy for me to be certain I'd pick it back up. Mikhail tells the stories of these women with both dignity and sorrow; in moments we are watching Mikhail herself process and grieve. It's a humanizing approach to journalism and Mikhail seems to care for each woman in a personal, sisterly manner. She makes a point of honoring the helpers who appear in every story, risking their lives to aid these women. Oftentimes, they do so in spite of religious or ethnic differences and in defiance of their communities. The stories are moving, but they are also just devastatingly sad.

I read a lot of books about tragedy. I'm not always sure why some effect me more than others, when I don't believe in hierarchies of human suffering. But when Dunya Mikhail writes, it feels like she is honestly asking the world just to see. To see the death, loss, and grief in her country that has been so disrespected in the American imagination. It is a heavy invitation, but it feels urgently important.

[Surabhi Chatrapathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Beekeeper of Sinjar is a non fiction account of the small, private efforts of rescuing women captured by ISIL in Iraq.
We learn of most of the stories through telephonic conversations held between the writer Dunya Mikhail and the rescue mission operative Abdullah Sheram. Who was formerly a beekeeper in the border area of Sinjar.
The book attacks you with the absolute violence ISIL inflicted upon Christians and more so Yazidis.
It also shows you the humanity, compassion that many others possessed, redeeming humanity here and there.
We learn a lot about Yazidi culture, which was personally interesting for me.
The first half of the book soley focuses on the rescue stories coming in from the borders of Iraq , Syria and Turkey.
In the second half Dunya beings to tell us of her own story as a political refugee in the states. Bits of her very poignant and measured poetry appear in timely places making the whole book a lot more heavy and heart breaking.

[Parę słów o książkach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Niesamowita historia o krzywdzie wyrządzanej przez ISIS i o ludziach, którzy bezinteresownie walczą w imię ratowania innych, obcych im osób.

[Tânia Tanocas · Rating 3 out of 5]

É desumano ler este relato, mais desumano ainda é que eles sejam executados, quer seja ontem, hoje ou amanhã...
A minha classificação deve-se ao facto de por vezes me sentir confusa no relato...

[Kiran Bhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into the Daesh captured territories of Syria. Worth a read for anyone who is interested in the harrowing histories of these lands.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need not just one tissue but a whole box........If you don't read a single book this year or ever.
I Strongly recommend you read this one! It will make you think how lucky we are.

I found The Beekeeper of Sinjar by Dunya Mikhail heart wrenching and a very strong book that will have you saying OMG and reaching out for some tissues. This book is a compilation of harrowing stories about different attempts to rescue of the Yazidi women, who were captured by ISIS. These women have lost their families, close friends and love ones and in a different country. They've been sexually abused, tortured, sold into sex slavery like common cattle, woman and small children are forced to manufacture chemical weapons, then forced into marriage. Their men and the elderly are forced into pits then massacred.
Their tales are unfolded within this brilliant written book. Dunya Mikhail also writes about the beekeeper, who uses his knowledge of the local terrain and the large network of transporters, helpers and former smugglers who help bring the women back to safety.

This book is just Beautifully written that will make you stop reading and think..........A must Read.

A Very Big Thank you to Netgalley, Serpent's Tail / Profile Books and Dunya Mikhail for sharing this True Story.

Big Fat 5 Star read. If I could give it 100 Stars I would. My heart goes out to these women and I hope they peace. x

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy via Edelweiss.

This book and these stories are going to stay with me for a long time. I took my time reading this because the subject matter is heavy and I needed to take a break once in a while, which sparks some guilt since that privilege isn't available to people living these stories everyday. I watch and read news stories of the situations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, but I had no idea just how awful (horrible? these words aren't strong enough) it is for the people Daesh targets. I'm glad Mikhail and Abdalla connected so the book can spread awareness of the nightmare created by Daesh.

The subject matter and stories told are worth 5 stars, but the format confused me so I knocked off a star. It took me a while to understand the phone call format and where the narrator/author was. I like how near the end of the book she visited the area and met some of the people whose stories she had heard. Maybe it will read better when it's published.

[Adelaide Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um misto de emoções como Pessoa e Mulher: Horror pelo que em pleno sec. XXI se continua a fazer em nome da religião, principalmente às mulheres.
E Fé, fé nos homens que conseguem lutar no meio destes horrores para salvarem nem que seja uma única vida.
Um livro que é um relato de coragem, humanidade e de atrocidades

[Peiman · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتاب دو رشته ی در هم تنیده داره، یکی روایت های آزاد کردن و فراری دادن زنان و کودکان از دست داعش توسط یک زنبوردار به نام عبدا... و یکی داستان های جسته و گریخته از خود نویسنده مربوط به زمان جنگ در عراق. با اینکه این حقایق رو همه باید بدونند ولی فکر میکنم برای ما ایرانی ها که هر روز داستان هایی با این مضمون دیدم و شنیدیم خیلی گیرا نیست... و شاید انتظار من بیشتر بود

[NancyJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hundreds of girls and women in Iraq were kidnapped by Daesh (ISIS) soldiers in recent years, and were sold or given to soldiers, as sabaya (sex slaves) or wives. (Sometimes as a performance bonus.) This book tells the stories of many of these women, primarily those from the Yazidi religion, and how they escaped or were rescued. This book is heavy on stories, not data, and it's peppered with pictures and poetry. I'm more of a charts and graphs sort of person, but I think we all need to know about these stories, and I'm glad I read the book.

The soldiers preferred young virgins, they also stole many married Yazidi women along with their children. (Threats to the children were used to make the women more cooperative.) The soldiers claimed that the women’s real marriages didn’t count. Most expected their “wives” to learn prayers and convert (or go through the motions to convert), but some men didn’t bother with the pretext that it was a real marriage. A man might sell a disagreeable wife before going off to fight, and buy a new one when he returned. Women were beaten and raped in front of their children, and families were often fed nothing but rice. In one example, whole families worked for their captors making bombs, and young boys were trained to become soldiers. They were taught that their mothers didn't deserve respect.

When a village was raided, many were first given the chance to convert to Islam, and the men could become soldiers. They were told that otherwise they would be transported to safer areas. The men and women would then be transported separately, and the men were eventually put in large pits and shot to death. The author interviewed two men who played dead and eventually pulled themselves out of their pits.

There were online markets set up to sell the women, often for $85, $200 or much more. Middlemen posing as Daesh would buy women, and resell women to their families or others for a profit. Some for $10000 or more. At least one woman was sold to an “American Emir” and the author reported allegations or rumors that Saudi Arabians bought women to use for body parts for transplants.

Many of the stories in the book come from Abdullah Shrem, the beekeeper (his former occupation). He started by trying to find and rescue his own relatives. Now he is connected to a network of smugglers (including women posing as vendors) who help find and rescue women. This has become a livelihood for the people in his network, but it’s dangerous work. Families and neighbors might raise $10000 to pay to rescue their loved one, but some women came home to find that few or no family members were left. Bribes, sales, ransoms, and other costs might eventually be reimbursed by an organization set up to help kidnap victims (but only for successful rescues).

It was unclear to me if Abdullah was really a hero as the author portrays him, or someone who fell into a lucrative new line of work. I know that having a hero sort of ties the stories together, but the author's lack of journalistic skepticism triggered more of my own skepticism. In the book, she details phone conversations with him, and she relates his stories without seeming to ask any questions. I would have liked more rigor and substantiation of some of the information about the rescues, financials, or other activities. She mentioned an organization for Kidnapping Affairs, which might have provided context, scope or corroboration.

Some of the women were able to escape from the houses on their own when the soldiers went off to fight. They were aided, fed, or hidden by neighbors, shopkeepers, or a stranger with a cell phone. If they sought help from the wrong person (in some areas all the neighbors were Daesh), or were caught trying to escape, the consequences could be dire. Some women were frozen in place by fear until someone in the network found them and arranged for their escape. The book details clever and courageous stories of rescues, and touching stories of women and children who were hidden from kidnappers for months.

One story reminded me of A Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. There are many parallels between these events and Nazi Germany. Daesh/ISIS is killing and assaulting large numbers of people based on their religion or sect. People used to say of Nazi Germany, If we only knew, we would have done more. One key difference is that due to the Internet and cell phones, it’s harder to keep atrocities a secret from the rest of the world. But we're not paying attention. Perhaps we've become numb to all the atrocities in places we can't easily pronounce. Despite the cruelty and violence, the stories of courage and kindness do provide some hope.

A related book is The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, by Nadia Murad. Hers was one of the stories covered in The Beekeeper. I think that the tone of The Beekeeper was less personal and less intense than Nadia’s book, which may make it easier to read, but that also takes away some of the drive to find out what happens next.

[Krystelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible relation of the stories told by the women who have managed to escape the clutches of Daesh through so many heartbreaking circumstances, this was a horrible read. I have a policy when it comes to tragedies, however, and that is to not look away, regardless of the circumstances. There has to be someone to bear witness to the horrific atrocities that happen in our world, and therefore I think it’s absolutely vital that books like this are written. One thing that particularly jarred me was the ‘American’, who had evidently relocated for part of his year with the sole intent of raping and destroying the lives of women whilst maintaining a family in the US. The fact that people have come to see such a place as their safe haven to behave in inhumane ways broke something within me. But we cannot, indeed, look away. We owe these women that much, and so, so much more.

[Rose Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe these human rights atrocities happened under my nose while I was in college, and I was completely oblivious to them. Mikhail has captured the stories of the women, as filtered through Abdullah, a man who is nothing short of a hero, rescuing hundreds of abducted and abused women. Someday, kids will learn about this in school and wonder how these events were allowed to happen at this point in history. I will wonder the same, even as I lived through them, and resolve to be more aware, more compassionate, less ignorant in the future.

[Charlene]

This book is harrowing and so heavy. It follows Abdullah, a Yazidi man from Iraq who formerly worked as a beekeeper. After the rise of daesh in the Sinjar region, where Yazidis reside, he put aside beekeeping and devoted his life to rescuing those stolen by daesh. There are multiple people’s stories told, many being interconnected, and each one sharing the same horror. Reading every testimony brought me so much pain, there were sentences that made me outright sob and feel as though I couldn’t continue on from that page without taking a break to process the information. The people of Sinjar and Nineveh plains suffered so much and Abdullah is a hero.