A review by anneshamitha
The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail

5.0

I wish there were more books like this; ethically reported, beautifully written, and most importantly, centering the women and rescuers that it is about. In these pages are the direct testimonials of many raped & rescued Yazidi women, as well as the men who rescued them. These testimonials form the backbone of this book, and it is their words that travel this distance into the minds of the reader. I'm a Western (American) reader, and whenever I hear about the captured Yazidi women it is consistently sensationalized. In some ways, this is understandable - what's happening is sensational, not normal (& far too normal), a kind of terror that few who have not lived through it can imagine. But in these cases the women are the horror stories, the guilty "glad it wasn't me," a statistic. Here, they are women. Complicated. Healing. Suffering. Exhausted. Reunited. Lost. Found. Mothers. Daughters. Sisters. This is how conflict should be reported - from the point of view of those closest to it, those in most desparate need for a voice. Throughout these testimonials are the fascinating conversations between Mikhail and the "Beekeeper," an unassuming man who has singlehandedly coordinated efforts to rescue hundreds of women, as well as Mikhail's own thoughts about the violence in her home, an extension of the same violence that led her to exile so many years before.