The Erasure of Assyrian Women: Sexual Violence and Archival Silence
Assyrians, an Indigenous West Asian group, face ongoing historical erasure through state denial of genocides like the 1933 Simele massacre and the systemic neglect of sexual violence against their women.
- Assyrians are an Indigenous West Asian group unrecognized in any regional constitution.
- The 1933 Simele massacre killed thousands of Assyrians and remains unacknowledged by Iraq.
- Sexual violence against Assyrian women is identified as a tool of genocide and cultural destruction.
- Archival silence has left Assyrian victims largely undocumented compared to other genocides.
- ISIS persecution and assimilation policies continue to threaten Assyrian identity and survival.
Assyrians are an Indigenous ethnic group from West Asia, with ancestral homelands spanning parts of Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Despite their ancient heritage and distinct Neo-Aramaic language, they remain politically disenfranchised and unrecognized as an Indigenous people in any Middle Eastern constitution.
The article highlights the 1933 Simele massacre in Iraq, where the Iraqi army, aided by Kurdish tribes, executed a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Assyrians. Thousands were killed following state-sponsored propaganda that labeled them "foreign" and "colonial agents." The British administration remained inactive during the violence, and the Iraqi state has never officially acknowledged the massacre. Commander Bakr Sidqi, who led the operations, was celebrated as a national hero.
A central theme is the specific targeting of Assyrian women and girls through sexual violence, abduction, and forced conversion. Scholars note that such gendered violence serves as an instrument of genocide by fracturing family structures and destroying cultural continuity. Women, who preserve language and tradition, bear a disproportionate burden of this erasure.
Unlike the Armenian genocide, where international bodies like the League of Nations documented missing persons, Assyrian victims have largely been absent from archival records. This "archival silence" compounds the trauma, leaving many stories untold. The author argues that Assyrians were geopolitically powerless during post-war struggles over oil resources, leading to a lack of international assistance or documentation.
Recent persecution by the Islamic State (ISIS) further targeted Assyrian communities with killings and enslavement. However, international discourse has often subsumed Assyrian experiences under broader narratives of Christian persecution or focused disproportionately on Yazidi victims, obscuring the specific ethnic identity and gendered experiences of Assyrian women.
Today, Assyrians face continued assimilation pressures, including forced reclassification as Arabs, Kurds, or other identities. Patriarchal status laws in West Asia often compel women to relinquish their language and culture upon marriage. Organizations like the Seyfo Centre and Assyrian Genocide Studies are now working to archive these lost histories, but much first-hand testimony from older generations has already been lost.
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