Kiana Hayeri

Visual Storyteller

www.kianahayeri.com

Yazidi Sisters

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Location: Aurora

Nationality: Iranian-Canadian

Biography: Kiana (b.1988) grew up in Tehran, Iran and migrated to Toronto while she was still a teenager. Faced with the challenges of adapting to a new environment, she took up photography as a way of bridging the gap in language and culture. After an... MORE

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | J... the people she cannot locate.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | Jihan's hands. When Jihan was in Syria during her captivity, she took a needle and tattooed her upper body. She made the ink by blending ash with breast milk given to her from another captive. Tattoos are â€œharamâ€â€”forbidden in the Koran, ostensibly undesirable to members of ISIS. Jihan hoped these tattoos serve as a protective shield against ISIS, repellant to anyone who believes in their creed. Using the needle, she poked uneven block letters into her arms and across her chest, writing out the names of her missing family members: Hudda, her mother, her brothers, her sister-in-law who was pregnant in 2015 when they last saw her. Jihanâ€™s fiancÃ©â€™s name, Tahsen, is spelled out across her upper left chest above her heart, Jihanâ€™s name beside it on the right. She has turned her upper body into permanent catalog of all the people she cannot locate.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | J...nment to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | Jihan (29) eats a late lunch after school while the TV is turned on, looping on English language learning Youtube channels. That's what the two sisters listen to all the time, repeating what they hear on TV. Jihan and Munifa are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | W...nment to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | With every movement outside their apartment, Munifa (24) turns towards the window to see what it was and at times, she just dazes out of the window for several minutes before she becomes conscious and turns away. Jihan and Munifa are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | Jihan (29) and Munifa (24) practice their english alphabet and numbers on a small portable whiteboard in the evening. Jihan and Munifa are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | J...arking lot of a shopping mall.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Jihan (29) and Munifa (24) play with Asmar's kids while she is on the phone on behalf of Munifa, talking with a bank teller to resolve Munifa's issues with her debit card. Asmar, a Kurdish volunteer, has kindly accepted to meet with the sisters and help them through some bank related errands, inside the parking lot of a shopping mall.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | Jihan (29) prepares breakfast for herself and her sister. She does most of the house work and cooking in the house single handedly despite her condition. The two sisters are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | M...itions in these camps are grim.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Munifa (24) keeps a sets of photos from Huda (20), her youngest sister in the wallet she carries with her. Today, Hudda lives in the Qadia Camp for internally displaced persons in northern Iraq. Conditions in these camps are grim.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | D...was hospitalize for a few days.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | Dr. Rita Watterson, Jihan's psychiatrist, pays her a home visit to check on her well being. On this day, Jihan hasn't had an episode for nearly 10 days, but her last episode was bad enough for people to call ambulance and she was hospitalize for a few days.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | J...e leaves the house for school.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | Jihan puts on some lotion in front of the mirror before she leaves the house for school.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | Jihan (29) impatiently tries one more time to connect with her youngest sister, Huda (20) who is now stuck in a camp in Iraq, before she leaves the house. "When I'm eating breakfast, Huda is eating dinner, when I go to sleep, Huda is waking up to the sunrise," she said dialing Huda's what's app number. Jihan and Munifa are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | J...arrived in Canada as refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Jihan (29) sits through her English class at CCIS, where all of her classmates are fellow yazidis who have arrived in Canada as refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | I...nment to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/17/18 | In between classes, Jihan (29) socializes with the other Yazidis enrolled in English classes at CCIS. The man in the front is her paternal uncle, Salim, who paid the ransom for the release of both Munifa and her youngest sister, Huda, who is still stuck in Iraq. The two sisters are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | M...parking lot of a shopping mall.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Munifa (24) rest her head against the front seat while her sister tries to find a friend in the parking lot of a shopping mall.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | M... men were taken from the women.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Munifa receives the card which appoints her to make a sentence about her sister. Inside Munifa's English class, for three days in a row, they practice vocabulary related to family, a process that seems to be too painful for most the students. Lori encourages the students including Munifa (24), whom are all Yazidi refugees, to construct sentences and talk about their families, while most of them have either lost their relatives or they're still in captivity with ISIS. Munifaâ€™s family lost their home, community, way of life after being subjected to a brutal campaign of genocide, kidnap and rape by ISIS, beginning in August 2014. She has not seen her brothers, her mother nor her fiancÃ© in more than four years. She acknowledges that it is unlikely they are alive. â€œEveryone could hear the guns,â€ she says, recalling the first hours in her village after men were taken from the women.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | L...nment to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Like every other morning, Jihan (29) tries to what's app with her youngest sister, Huda (20) who is now stuck in a camp in Iraq, before she leaves the house. "When I'm eating breakfast, Huda is eating dinner, when I go to sleep, Huda is waking up to the sunrise," she said dialing Huda's what's app number. Jihan and Munifa are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | M...her sister in welters Calgary.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Munifa (24) sets out the dinner in the living room of the house she shares with her sister in welters Calgary.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | J...nment to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | Jihan (29) and Munifa (24) socialize with the other Yazidis unrolled in English classes at CCIS in between classes. The two sisters are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | A...men were taken from the women.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/18/18 | At dinner, Jihan (29) what's app her youngest sister, Hudda (20) who is still stuck at a refugee camp in Iraq. The necklace she's wearing has the name of her youngest brother Munif. When Jihan was in Syria during her captivity, she took a needle and tattooed her upper body. She made the ink by blending ash with breast milk given to her from another captive. Tattoos are â€œharamâ€â€”forbidden in the Koran, ostensibly undesirable to members of ISIS. Jihan hoped these tattoos serve as a protective shield against ISIS, repellant to anyone who believes in their creed. Using the needle, she poked uneven block letters into her arms and across her chest, writing out the names of her missing family members: Hudda, her mother, her brothers, her sister-in-law who was pregnant in 2015 when they last saw her. Jihanâ€™s fiancÃ©â€™s name, Tahsen, is spelled out across her upper left chest above her heart, Jihanâ€™s name beside it on the right. She has turned her upper body into permanent catalog of all the people she cannot locate. Jihan's family lost their home, community, way of life after being subjected to a brutal campaign of genocide, kidnap and rape by ISIS, beginning in August 2014. She has not seen her brothers, her mother nor her fiancÃ© in more than four years. She acknowledges that it is unlikely they are alive. â€œEveryone could hear the guns,â€ she says, recalling the first hours in her village after men were taken from the women.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | J...s transparent protective cover.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | Jihan's phone on the right with a sticker of Canadian flag and Munifa's phone on the left with two photos of her mother, stuck in between her phone and its transparent protective cover.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | M...nment to help Yazidi refugees.

CALGARY | CANADA | 10/19/18 | Munifa (24) spends countless hours just sitting in front of her phone's camera, video chatting with Adel, her long distance boyfriend and a Yazidi refugee currently in Germany. At times, they two just sit looking at each other without saying a word. Jihan and Munifa are Yazidi refugees living in Calgary, arriving in Canada during the summer of 2017 as part of the Victims of Daesh program, a special resettlement program created by the Canadian government to help Yazidi refugees.